PRELIMINARY REPORT 

OF THE = 

Committee on General 
Welfare 



Board of Aldermen 

City of New York 



In the Matter of a Request of the Conference of Organized 
Labor Relative to Educational Facilities. 



MEETING OF JUNE 26, 1917 




Glass Li- 
Book_JJ 5A^ 



/ 



PRELIMINARY REPORT 

•^^=== OF THE =^=^== 

Committee on General 
Welfare 



Board of Aldermen 

City of New York 



In the Matter of a Request of the Conference of Organized 
Labor Relative to Educational Facilities. 



MEETING OF JUNE 26, 1917 



I 9/7 



D. Of D. 
NOV 23 1917 



2A-5001-17-B 



REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON GENERAL WELFARE. 



The Committee on General Welfare, to which was referred on Febru- 
ary 6, 1917 (Minutes, page 305), the annexed request of the Conference 
of Organized Labor to the Board to hold hearings and to invite the Board 
of Education and City officials to answer why the demands for better edu- 
cational facilities have not been respected, respectfully 

REPORTS : 

That there was referred to the Committee on February 6, 1917, a peti- 
tion from the Conference of Organized Labor requesting that the Board 
hold meetings and invite the Board of Education and City officials to 
answer why better educational facilities have not been respected, pursuant 
to this communication, the Committee has held several hearings through- 
out the City of New York and in order that the members of the Board and 
the public in general may be acquainted with what transpired at the several 
hearings this Committee now submits as a preliminary report and transcript 
the accompanying minutes of the several hearings. 

Harry Robitzek, Chairman; 
Arnon L. Squiers, 
James R. Ferguson, 
John T. Eagan, 
Alexander Bassett, 
William T. Collins, 
Charles A. McManus, 
Charles H. Haubert, 

Committee on General Welfare. 



Conference of Organized Labor on Industrial Education 
of the City of New York, 

New York, February 6, 1917. 

Hon. Frank Dowling, President, Board of Aldermen, City Hall, New York City: 

Dear Sir — For some time past the trades unionists in this City have been en- 
deavoring to secure the establishment of proper facilities for the education of all 
public school children, both from the Board of Education and from the City officials, 
and have not been successful up to the present time. 

On April 24 we announced the following programme for the improvement of the 
public schools : 

"As our firm conviction is that a sound policy of elementary education is the 
foundation of our civilization, especially in a city like New York, a vast melting 
pot in which we transform the timid illiterate emigrant accustomed to repressive 
forms of government into the courageous literate citizen of our great republic, we, 
the representatives of organized labor, respectfully submit the following outlines 
of what we conceive to be a very sound educational policy: That in as much as 
there is no democratic institution superior to the public school for training our 
children in the ideals of our nation, and in as much as only a small percentage 
of our children reach the high schools and the free colleges supported by our 
City, that we are justified in saying that the elementary school is the real uni- 
versity of the people, and as such its needs and interests are paramount to those 
of any other type of educational agency supported by public funds. 

"We believe that any readjustment of conditions should represent the con- 
sensus of opinion of the majority of the citizens of the City as expressed in terms 
of parents' associations, mothers' clubs, local school boards, employers of labor, 
organized labor and professional educators. No readjustment should be predicated 
on the assumption of a relatively noval type of school developed in a little 
Western town, created by the fiat of the United States Steel Corporation, as the 
best and only type solution of our present educational difficulties. 

"We believe that educational policies should be free from both the control 
of politics and also the sinister influence of those great foundations created as a 
result of ill gotten wealth. Instead of the Board of Education being subservient 
to the City administration, we favor a small elective board, with financial in- 
dependence. Moreover, it should be evident that expert professional advice, such 
as we may reasonably expect from the City Superintendent and his associates, 
Superintendents, District Superintendents, Principals, Teachers, etc., supplemented 
by the best advice obtainable from parents and other agencies already indicated, 
should be the basis of our educational policy, rather than the unsupported opinion 
of untrained laymen or imported experts employed at exorbitant salary by the 
Board of Estimate and Apportionment. That both in terms of intent and financial 
ability, the people of our City are able to provide funds for educational purposes 
which will enable our educational authorities to provide the type of schooling 
which the parents and properly qualified experts deem best for our children to 
have. No peal of economy can possibly justify the deplorable conditions such as 
exist in our schools to-day. Despite gross extravagance in other fields of munici- 
pal government, the present City administration has deliberately refused to 
appropriate money demanded by the Teachers, Principals, District Superinten- 
dents and Associate Superintendents and the Board of Education, although the 
said demands were based upon a full and accurate knowledge of the needs of 
the situation. . The chaotic conditions that prevail in the school system at the 



present time are the net result of attempted illegal control and uncalled for 
parsimony on the part of the Board of Estimate and Apportionment. 
"Failure to provide adequate funds has meant : 

"a. Woeful lack of school accommodations, with the resultant makeshift 
of duplicate school organization, which is to be extended as a matter of alleged 
economy, rather than because of the judicial approval of parents, employers, or- 
ganized labor or professional educators, such as City Superintendent William H. 
• Maxwell and his assistants." 

Over 100,000 pupils are in double session classes and over 50,00 on the double shift, 
"b. Lack of proper teaching and supervision due to the fact that coi»trary 
to all principles of justice, funds have not been provided for the appointment of 
all teachers needed." 
There are hundreds of vacancies to-day. 

"c. Ineffective teaching, due not to lack of sincerity or effort on the part 
of the teaching staff, but due to the classes of excessive size in both kindergarten 
and in the regular grades which were made compulsory by the plans to affect 
alleged economies." 

There are about 200 kindergarten classes with SO pupils and nearly 300 with over 
50. In the grades there were about 1,000 classes of over 50 pupils, and there are 
thousands and thousands of children in classes of over 40, when the normal number 
should be about 35. Compare this with the private schools to which a large number 
of the present members of the Board of Education send their children. Look into 
this statement and you will discover the real reason why the charge is so often made 
that the children graduating from a public school arc not thoroughly versed in the 
three R's. 

You will also find that the blame will not rest with the teachers or the teaching 
administration, but with the theorists, faddists, uplifters and foundation representatives, 
who are responsible for this deplorable overcrowded condition and who are merely 
using the children attending our schools in exploitation and experiments to furthe:r 
their own fads and fancies and also stifle their intellectual development. 

"d. Radical curtailment of special but basic features of the school system, 
such as special classes in the elementary schools, after school playgrounds and 
evening recreation and community centres, and lectures." 

Evening schools are kept open only three nights a week. Attendance has de- 
creased over 20,000. 

"e. Failure to properly support or to initiate experimental work in con- 
nection with such new features of elementary school organization, as prevocationaf 
training, shortened courses of study and intermediate or junior high school organi- 
zations." 
Only meagre beginnings have been made and no extension authorized yet. 

"f . Period of unrest and disturbance among pupils, teachers and parents that has 
meant loss of confidence, lack of harmony, divided authority and lessened efficiency 
throughout the entire system." 

"We believe that the present trend of education is to provide a minimum six 
year schooling in fundamentals with differentiated courses of study in the seventh, 
eighth and possibly the ninth year. We heartily believe that such a reorganization 
of a corriculum will provide a more democratic type of schooling than does our 
present eight year uniform curriculum." 

"In view of the fore-mentioned demoralized condition of education in the 
City we make the following demands on the Board of Education and Mayor 
Mitchel and other members of the Board of Estimate and Apportionment." 

"1. Immediate grant of funds for the erection of new school buildings to 
provide every child decent accommodations in a full-time class without resort 



to the deplorable expedient of the double shift, commonly designed as the 
■duplicate school of the double session 

"2. The immediate erection of temporary buildings or renting or other 
buildings to provide all necessary school facilities to relieve every class with over 
forty children and to relieve all overcrowding and part time. 

"3. Immediate placing of kindergartens on a basis that will make them 
sufficiently attractive and desirable for all children of the kindergarten age to 
attend. 

"4. Immediate development of every recreation and community centre to 
their fullest capacity, but under the complete control of the Board of Education, 
and the entire expense of management and maintenance to be borne by the Board 
•of Education. 

"5. Immediate provision in every school in the city, with ideal playground 
facilities at the city's expense so that after school athletics for boys and girls 
will become a regular part of our educational system. 

"6. Immediate plans to be adopted to furnished school accommodations to 
all people deserving elementary and high school instruction at night. 

"7. Immediate opening of night and day school classes for the teaching of 
English to foreigners. 

"8. Immediate provision for the establishment of summer schools and 
regular pay for teachers in these schools. 

"9. Immediate appointment of all necessary regular school teachers so that 
there will not be more than forty children in any class. 

"lit. Immediate elimination of the substitute teaching evil and their appoint- 
ments and assignments made regular and according to law. 

"11. Immediate payment to all teachers of their legal salary, according to 
their official rating and work. 

"12. Immediate stopping of all attacks upon all branches of the teaching 
staff by city officials and Board of Education, so that they will be able to devote 
all their time and attention to the proper educational development of the school 
children. 

"13. Immediate organization of advisory committees for each trade in which 
the schools are now giving industrial instruction. Committees to be of equal 
number of employers and representatives of the Unions, with power to approve 
course of study and appointment of instructors. 

"14. Immediate adoption of all rules and regulations by the Board of 
Education for the establishment of compulsory continuation schools for all 
children, with working papers, between the ages of 14 and 16 for eight hours a 
week, between the hours of 8 a. m. and 5 p. m., Saturday afternoons excepted." 
No funds made available, although plan for such work is ready. And Board of 
Superintendents asked for $240,000 two years ago, which would care for about 20,000 
pupils. 

"15. Immediate elimination from the course of study of any activity which 
takes away from the essentials and fundamentals of education in the elementary 
schools. 

"16. Immediate provision for comprehensive experiments with shorter 
courses of study, prevocational schooling and intermediate or junior high schools. 

"17. Immediate elimination of the monitor or assistant teacher evil, whereby 
pupils are taken from higher grades to supervise and direct children in the lower 
grades as assistant teachers. 

"18. Immediate opening of all schools for evening lectures under the com- 
plete direction and supervision of the Board of Education. 



"19. Furthermore, we record our emphatic protest against any further 
extension of the Gary plan of duplicate school experiments now underway in 
this City. This it has not done as yet, according to the annual report of the 
city superintendent of schools, just issued. He declares that the 'tried by the 
ordinary tests of school power to hold pupils throughout the course, extent of 
retardation, per capita cost — the Gary schools show themselves decidedly inferior 
to our regular schools.' " 
Another $6,000,000 is to be poured into this experiment. 

"We record our protest, in view of these facts, against any further experi- 
mentation with the children of the public schools with this plan, except in the 
schools originally selected for the experiment, and we call upon the Board of 
Aldermen to institute a searching investigation of the work now being done 
in the experimental schools to the end that if conditions therein do not show 
improvement that the experimentation with children shall cease. 

"Under no condition should the Board of Education cease its efforts to 
secure for the children the best education possible, and the first step in doing 
so should be to plan for the construction of sufficient school buildings to ac- 
commodate properly in a full-time class all of the children of school age. 

"We demand the enactment into state law that education be compulsory up 
to sixteen years of age, and continuation schools of eight hours per week be 
compulsory up to eighteen years of age, and that scholarship or other State aid 
be furnished by the State. 

"We protest against the Board of Education and City administration in its 
vicious economy program, throwing the children of our schools into outside 
organizations ; while such organizations may have the best purposes and inten- 
tions, they are supported by private contributions and are therefore charitable ; 
such charity or paternalism, is obnoxious to the people of a democratic form of 
government." 

We request the Board of Aldermen to hold hearings and invite the Board of 
Education and City officials to answer why all of the above demands from the 
people of this City is necessary upon our Board of Education and the City author- 
•ities. 

Since April 24 last, we have forwarded this program to each member of the 
Board of Education requesting that it receive their immediate attention, inasmuch as 
the initiative for expenditures in educational matters must have their inception in 
action by the Board of Education. Little or no attention has been paid to this pro- 
gram and demand of ours, so that we now find it necessary for to submit this 
matter to you with the request that it receive your immediate attention and that a 
hearing be granted at which we will have an opportunity to appear and furnish 
evidence to substantiate the charges which we make against the Board of Education 
and the City officers for their failure to adequately equip the schools in this city or 
to provide other schools as well as the sufficient number of teachers to properly 
educate the public school children. 

The people,.of the City of New York and the members of our Unions are paying 
the regular taxes either directly or indirectly in the belief that the necessary part 
of these taxes would be diverted to efficient education of the school children, as 
well as providing all the necessary facilities and equipment. 

For some reason or other which we want your Board to find out, this has not been 
done. 

We also call your attention to the lack of proper fire prevention facilities in 
our public schools for as we understand it the Fire Department has issued all the 
necessary orders and furnished all assistance possible to the Board of Education 



for providing all of the protection needed to safeguard the lives of the public school 
children from fire or fire accidents and we ask your Board to look carefully into 
th; failure of the Educational authorities and the Board of Estimate and Appor- 
tionment to make the necessary financial provisions for the installation of the proper 
fire protection equipment. 

During last year there were over 25 fires in our public school buildings and it 
has only been by a miracle or the protection of Providence that there has not been 
an appalling loss of lives and this condition should not be allowed to continue a 
moment longer. 

Furthermore, the responsibility for this horrible situation should be placed where 
it belongs so that the parents of the school children will know those who are directly 
responsible for the failure to provide the necessary protection for their children. 

I'm general public school conditions here at the present time are in a deplor- 
able condition and we sincerely hope that the Board of Aldermen will bring relief 
from the abuses which we complain of. I would appreciate your holding this hear- 
ing as soon as possible, also letting me know of the date selected and request that 
ynu invite members of Mothers' Clubs, Parents' Associations, employers and others 
interested in educational matters to appear and give you their views and opinions as 
to the abuses which they want remedied or eliminated from the public school 
system. Yours very truly, PETER J. BRADY, Secretary. 

MINUTES OF HEARING BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON GENERAL 
WELFARE OF THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN ON THE FOLLOWING 
MATTER. 

"No. 1242. Request of the conference of organized labor to the Board to hold 

hearings and to invite the Board of Education and city officials to answer why 

the demands lor better educational facilities have not been respected." 

Borough Hall. The Bronx, Third Avenue and Tremont Avenue, New York City, 
March 29, 1917; 8:00 P. M. 

Present — Alderman Rohitzek, Chairman, Friedlander, McManus, Collins, Haubert, 
hi. I agan, Dixson, Carroll, Members of Committee on General Welfare. 

Chairman Rohitzek — This is a meeting of the Committee on General Welfare, 
for tin purpose df considering a petition presented by the conference of organized 
labor and others, to consider school facilities in the City of New York. Now, I 
have asked the sergeant at arms to announce that those desiring to speak should 
nt their names to the clerk of the Committee, with their addresses, and those 
representing an association should kindly notify the Clerk to that effect. 

Alderman Collins — 1 may say to the ladies and gentlemen present that this 
Committee have agreed upon going around the entire city in order to avoid putting 
the people to the trouble of going down to City Hall, and we are in this position, 
that while we are ready to listen to complaints, we have to hear all sides to enlighten 
us as to the conditions which we have been told exist in the public school system, 
and we would be pleased to hear as many as possible. 

The Chairman — We are going all over the City, so we want briefly to hear those 
to-night interested in this subject who reside in The Bronx, because we will be in 
Brooklyn and in Queens and in upper Manhattan and lower Manhattan and then go 
to Brownsville and East New York. 

We will first offer into the record for the benefit of the Committee the following 
communications and briefs, which will be found in full at the close of the record: 

Brief submitted by The Professional Elementary Teachers' Association of the 
City of Xew York in answer to statements made by those favoring the Lockwood- 
Ellenbogen bill, 1173, at the hearing before the Committee on Affairs of the City 
of Xew York. Thursday. March IS. 1917. 



A petition signed by several hundred citizens and taxpayers of the school district 
of Public School 52 of The Bronx in regard to and in opposition to the duplicate 
school plan in that district. 

Communication dated March 28, from the Public Educational Association of the 
City of New York, in favor of the Gary plan. 

Communication from the Mothers' Circle of Public School 52, The Bronx, with 
a resolution. 

Communication from the Industrial Conference of Organized Labor on Industrial 
Education of the City of New York, signed by Peter J. Brady. 

Communication from Mrs. J. J. Wolff. 

Communication from the Gary School League of the City of New York, dated 
March 27, 1917, signed by Mrs. Mary L. Arthur, with enclosures. 

Communication from the Department of Education, Local School Board District 
No. 39, Brooklyn, New York, signed by the Secretary of Local School No. 39. 

(In addition to the above all communications addressed to the Committee will 
be fcund in full at the end of the record.) 

Mrs. Mary L. Arthur — Pardon me, Mr. Chairman, don't you think possibly it 
would avoid some confusion if the time was allotted either for or against on each 
side? 

Tlv: Chairman — For or against what? 

Mrs. Arthur — For instance, there are many here to-night that object to school 
matters in general. There are many others here that object, just as the Mothers of 
Public School 52, in that communication, to the Gary system. There are others here, we 
believe, that want to speak in favor of the Gary System. 

Don't you think it would avoid confusion if a certain amount of time was allotted 
to each side ana they just had to get their speakers in? 

The Chairman — Now, if there is a division, and if there are a certain number 
of people here in favor of a certain thing and a certain number of people here opposed 
to a certain thing, that is one thing; but I take it this is an investigation of school 
conditions generally, and you may be advocating the Gary system and others may 
be advocating in opposition to the Gary system, but there are other features of this 
investigation that do not include the Gary system, so it would be rather difficult I 
take it, and 1 hav consulted my colleagues on this committee, but we will endeavor 
to hear every one that will want an opportunity to be heard. Of course, we hope 
there will be no repetition and we hope each speaker will be as brief as possible. 

At the time of the hearing we held in City Hall some months ago it was found 
impossible to give the time to the subject for full discussion that it deserved, because 
we were then simply scratching the surface for the purpose of ascertaining whether 
or not- there was real foundation for this investigation. We were convinced from 
what was disclosed at that time that the hearing should go further. 

Alderman Collins — I suggest that we take up general complaints against the 
school system first. '.' 

The Chairman — And then hear those in favor of the school system as it now 
exists later? 

Alderman Collins — Yes. 

The Chairman— I think that is a very good idea. 

Mr. Bird S. Coitr — May I ask the Commission to copy into the record my remarks 
before them on the hearing upon which this hearing was granted, and such other 
documents as 1 want to file? This is a Bronx meeting and I do not care to interrupt 
local affairs. 

The Chairman — There is nothing you want to say at this time, Mr. Comptroller? 

Mr. Bird S Coler — No, except to have permission to file this in the record. 

The Chairman — Have we a copy of your remarks? 

Mr. Bird S. Coler — I have given you one, but I will file a more complete one. 



10 

Alderman Haubert — At the last hearing you filed a copy? 

Mr. Bird S. Coler — Yes, but I want to get it formally in the record. When you 
come to Brooklyn I will take up local matters there, so I do not want to talk about 
Bronx matters. 

Mr. William T. McCarthy — I suggest before the Comptroller goes it would be 
enlightening for the people of the Bronx to hear the Comptroller's remarks, instead 
of having them incorporated in the record. (Applause). We would all be glad to 
hear. 

Mr. Coler — The Committee will have a parents' meeting up here, and I will be 
very glad to come up to the Bronx and talk about the subject at the parents' meet- 
ing. I do not want to interfere with the Aldermanic Committee here at all, but I 
will be at the Parents' meeting, and I will be very glad to go into the subject then. 

Mr. George W. Clark — My suggestion is this, that in view of the fact that the 
Borough is divided into four local school districts, represented by local school boards, 
it might be well if you could provide to have each of the boards report to you as to 
the conditions they find relative to schools in that district. As secretary of the 
School District 26, which takes in almost half of the Borough, I am prepared to file 
our semi-annual report and elaborate on it if necessary and I think the other districts 
should be heard in the same way. 

The Chairman — I would be glad to hear you, Mr. Clark, as secretary of the Local 
Board for that district. We would be glad to hear you briefly. Go right ahead. 

Mr. Clark — At this time I would just like to call attention to the 26th District, 
which takes in all of the Annexed District, and all north of Tremont Avenue, east of 
the Concourse generally. We have reported as to the important features of the Dis- 
trict as to congestion. There is serious congestion in P. S. 32, which should be imme- 
diately relieved by hiring temporary quarters or by the erection of portable buildings. 
Every class in this school is on the double shift. There are only 1699 sittings and 
the register is 3786. 

The Chairman— What school, is that 32? 

Mr. Clark— 32. That is in 183rd Street. The number of children on part time 
is 2751. About 1000 children in the first year are on a four hour day, but accord- 
ing to the by-laws, this is full time. Relief is promised for this school by the erec- 
tion of an addition and the construction of a new school at Crotona Avenue and 180th 
Street, but it is evident that we cannot wait for these buildings, neither of which can 
dj in U-s than two >ears. 

In addition to the above we need the following schools: 

A new school at 179th Street, somewhere near 3rd Avenue. 

S. 13, Wakefield, or Williamsbridge, we need a new site and building 

The Board has several times recommended a school near 180th Street west of 3rd 
Avenue. Such a school would naturally be expected to take care of the territory 
north of 183rd Street and east of 3rd Avenue, rather, between 183rd Street and 179th 
Street, and between Webster Avenue and Third Avenue. We have never recom- 
mended an addition to P. S. 41. The congestion is not in P. S. 41, but rather in P. 
S. 13 and Williamsbridge. The new site should be located about half way between 
P. S. 41 and P. S. 21, east of White Plains Avenue. It will be all right to spend a 
small amount to duplicate the old school building No. P. S. 13 while we are waiting 
for the new school building, but it must not be supposed that duplication will offer 
a permanent solution of our problem without new buildings. 

We also call particular attention to the fact that the opening of the new subway 
system along White Plains Road will undoubtedly increase the congestion. 

\\ ithout adding further I would just like to file the report with your commit- 
tee. 

Mr. John F. Walsh — I am President of the Central Bronx Taxpayers Associa- 
tion. I had not intended to speak on this question now. but I just want to make 



11 

this suggestion : There is no question to my mind but that the dominating idea of 
this audience tonight is to hear the so-called Wirt system or duplicate school system 
discussed. 

The figures that the gentleman just submitted to you are universally admitted. 
The conditions of the Bronx could not be any worse than they are, and there is no 
need of singling out any section of it to say that it lacks school facilities. We 
lack them so badly here that we don't know what to do without them. That is a 
matter absolutely and entirely of finance with the Board of Estimate and Appor- 
tionment and the Board of Aldermen and with the people. 

I hold that it would be a wise thing tonight, subject of course to the gentlemen 
here representing the city government, to hear what we here in the Bronx tonight 
above and before all things else, and that is the question that is on the probe in 
the Bronx, which is the new system that, is going to be introduced or has been 
introduced the acceptable condition? Let its advantages and disadvantages be shown 
to us, because we gentlemen cannot afford to be looking for promises that will be 
given to us in the future. We want something that will relieve us now. If the sys- 
tem is capable of relieving our children we want it, not in the future, but tomorrow, 
and the day after; but I take it for granted — simply a suggestion, Mr. Chairman — 
that it is as you know, and everybody here knows that is intimate with school mat- 
ters, there is hardly a section in the Bronx that can be made any better by discus- 
sion, because we know there are no school facilities any place in the Bronx. What 
we want to know is, will our children under the proposed system that is coming to 
us get the education that belongs to every American citizen to fit him for his future 
life? (Applause). 

Alderman Collins — Some of the members of the Committee are not familiar 
with the conditions in the Bronx. I mean we are not from the Bronx, all the mem- 
bers of this Committee. Now is it your opinion that the conditions in the Bronx are 
bad in every locality? 

Mr. Walsh — It is hardly worth an answer. It could not be worse. (Applause). 

It is a -matter of figures. You can take the 700,000 population we have in the 
Bronx, and take your school accommodations — and the residents of the Bronx have 
never been very deep students of birth control (applause) — and you will find the evi- 
dence in every block. 

I came here tonight especially to represent the Central Bronx Taxpayers Associa- 
tion who did me the honor, unfortunately for me and themselves to make we Presi- 
dent of their Association. My purpose really was to get schools, not to speak of a 
system. It is the only activity that I take any part in since I became a resident of 
the Bronx, some 3 years ago, whether it was advantageous to me or the Bronx I 
won't lie able to tell for some time yet, but I have taken part in the school activi- 
ties. I made a fight immediately with the Board of Estimate and Apportionment 
and the Comptroller to get a school up here, and I got it in last year's budget for 
179th Street and 3rd Avenue, but it was whipped over to Belmont- to the Southern 
Boulevard district. I have been fighting for another, and I find that I have reached 
the one that Mrs. Paul — who seems to be a very important factor in school work in 
this town — promised us that we would get a smaller school and I was told they put 
us down for 32 schools in this section. I am speaking of this because that is the 
purpose that brought me here. 

Those things are coming, but as Mr. Clark said to you, they are things that must 
wait, for we cannot build schools. Unfortunately for us most of you have read the 
tales of Alladin — we have no lamp that we can rub now that will give a school build- 
ing just by rubbing the lamp, and we have got to wait, and if the system that is to 
come to us can show its value, can show that it will give us such a measure of relief 
as will make it possible to educate our children now, then in God's name we must put 
away from us any prejudices that we may have conceived against it. (Applause). 



12 

Personally I am not an advocate of the system. (Applause) My friends, 
applause does not amount to anything, and we are here tonight for one of the most 
serious purposes that it is possible to bring a gathering of citizens together for. Edu- 
cation is, par excellence, the question of the hour. It is the birthright of every 
American to be educated. The very moment he gets above either the fourth or 
fifth grades, immediately he is fitted to give out a course of study and run a high 
school, possibly a college. 

There is not a society in this town of any kind, settlement workers, suffrage, 
birth control, anything you please, the very moment they get organized, the first 
thing they tackle instead of what they organized themselves for, is to better the 
educational system of the school, and they are doing it with a vengeance. We want, 
as 1 said, and it is a fortunate thing that the city government has taken this mat- 
ter in hand — this is the first time within my memory of more than half a century 
as a resident of this town of New York that it ever got the opportunity of coming 
before the people. It is true that the condition has never before existed that exists 
today. When I was a school officer, a school trustee, as quite a young man in this 
City, we did not have presented to us the school problems that we have now. It 
is a question with us now whether we are going to educate our children or leave 
them uneducated, and I am speaking, when I did not intend to, because my purpose 
was to find out what it was that was to be offered to us for our children and see to 
it if 1 could find that there was anything in Nazareth and if I found anything good 
in Nazareth, why 1 will come to Nazareth. 

We have a condition gentlemen which means that under the condition it is utterly 
impossible t > educate our children. The only way by which we can solve that question 
is by erecting schools for them. It must be apparent to every sensible man and woman 
hat the physical erection of the buildings will take two or three years, and 
during those- two or three years, even if the city government will give us a sufficient 
sum of in i us th'.' number of schools adequate to meet the conditions to- 

day, if the Board of Estimate would give in a bulk sum all the money needed for every 
section of The Bronx to the City to build a school, it means that for three or four 
or live years the inadequate school system that we have to-day must continue. 

the question confronts us, is there a possible way of relieving that condi- 
tion? If there is, let it be presented to us. I say, per se, I am opposed to the Gary 
system so-called, and by-the-by, sure that is not the Gary system at all. 

Mr. Lionel Sulro — I do not see why people should assail any system, pro or con, 
without stating reasons why. 

The Chairman — If you have different sentiments you will be heard. 

Mr. Sutro — I haven't any sentiments at all, but simply as a point of information 
is it a very wise thing to have a man say he is for or against a thing without stating 
the reason why? Another point, I would like to know whether the Committee of the 
Board of Aldermen are entitled to depart from what they set out to do? Are you 
allowed to simply investigate the Gary system or must you investigate the entire 
S3 stem? 

Mi. Chairman — We are not sent out to investigate the Gary system, but to 
investigate the general system of the City of New York. 

Mr. Sutro — Then the gentlemen is talking out of order. If he wants to talk, 
let him be confined to the Gary system. 

Voices — No. No. 

Mr. Sutro — Is there any motion before the House? 

The Chairman — No. 

Mr. Sutro — May I make a motion? Am I in proper order? 

The Chairman — No. You have an opportunity to be heard. This is a public 
hearing. You will be heard later if you have anything to say. 



13 

Mr. Sutro — I simply want to have it done in a parliamentary way. 

The Chairman — We are trying to do that. 

M'r. Sutro — I would like someone to talk about it to have something before the 
Committee. 

The Chairman — If you have anything to say, we will hear you, but let Mr. Walsh 
finish first. 

Mr. Walsh — It shows the wonderful knowledge which my friend has just given 
of matters of procedure of this kind when he wants a motion in a public discussion. 

The Chairman — Let us not get into personalities. 

Mr. Walsh — It is not personalities. 

The Chairman — We are up here for a definite purpose. Let us dwell right on 
the subject and let us hear from you and from every other person here just what 
you have in mind. 

Mr. Walsh — Have I departed from it? 

Alderman Collins — Continue, Alderman. 

Mr. Walsh — I am intensely interested here, because the gentlemen who are 
associated with me in the Central Bronx Taxpayers' Association, those who were, some 
of them, who considered the Taxpayers' Association too confined, changed it to the 
Improvement Association of this City, of The Bronx here, to meet the very condition 
we are confronted with to-day. 

Now, I take it for granted, as I say, that a condition exists. We cannot get 
away from that, and the condition that exists is that we lack school facilities for 
our children. The only question coming after that is, is there a possibility of meeting 
that condition? Is there a possibility of supplying that want to the children and giving 
them the opportunity that is the birthright of not alone of every American, but of every 
child that is born under God's sun to get an education to fit that child for the problems 
of life. We are not in that condition to-day. 

If this so-called Gary system, which I was going to say is not the Gary system 
at all because institutions of that character were in vogue in Europe two centuries 
ago, where the first commercial school of the kind, or institutional school or vocational 
school or whatever brand of name you want to put to them, was invented by a 
Frenchman named De LaSalle in 1684, and they have been steadily working from 
that time to now — will this character of school save our children this time? 

I will strive to make myself clear in two or three minutes because it is not fair 
to take up the time, but as I said, I am at a disadvantage because I came here to 
hear what advantage was to be presented and then give my views after. 

I do know something about schools, if there is anything I have any knowledge 
of at all, and I have but little knowledge at best of times, but I do know something 
about schools. The mere matter of absorption from my connection with the 
school system for more than 40 years since I was first appointed school 
trustee in 1880, should have given me some little knowledge of schools and I am 
opposed to the so-called system that is going to come here, if it is going to interfere 
with an education that will give the child the very essential three R's. (Applause.) 
If there is anything that has been proven conclusively through the centuries it is the 
value of the so-called three R's. If you do not implant in the mind of the young 
child in its earlier years the essential things on which education must be built up, 
like building a house of sand, the house will crumble. If the duplicate system so- 
called is going to menace the essentials of the three R's I am opposed to it. If the 
early education of the child gives him, for want of a better time the three R's, and 
they can learn hand in hand together the rest of it, then I am for the Gary system, 
because I am not a fool. 

It promises to give relief for the time being. If it does give us the relief, half 
a loaf is better than no bread and the fellow who will take half a loaf and remain 
hungry until he reaches starvation deserves to be starved if he would not take it. 



14 

As I travelled around this Bronx since I came here during the last three years, 
as I was travelling to-day with one of my associates in the local association of which 
I am the president, we were going around with one of the oldest German-American 
citizens here, thoroughly acquainted with The Bronx, striving to find a suitable site 
for a school and as we ran around we were confronted with conditions and as we 
travelled the big centers around and saw the number of children there we commenced 
to have an experience that taught us it was an unwisdom to oppose anything that 
promises immediate relief from that condition. Now, then, I want this to go in, 
that the association that has sent me here are quite opposed to the duplicate system, 
but they are a body of sensible men. They are men who realize the condition that 
confronts them. They are now prepared, because of having learned the possibilities 
of immediate relief under the duplicate system that is purposed to be presented to 
the people here that it will be an absolute good, and deeming themselves to be 
ordinary sensible men, having an eye single to the good of the children of this 
section, wishing to relieve the condition that exists now and to relieve it, not to wait 
until the physical labor of putting up 10 or 20 or 30 buildings that are needed, which 
is impossible if we wish to relieve the conditions under which we are living now — 
then, indeed, we are perfectly willing to take anything and we will thank God for 
anything and call it a blessing, give it what name you please, and call if what system 
you wish, for we do not care whether it is Wirt or Gary, or anybody else, the one 
thing that we want is to educate the children. 

Besides, Mr. Chairman, let me put this word in before I finish : Things are chang- 
ing in America. We are living in an age that is an age of progress. We never 
rest in America. We arc in a constant state of progress. The education that fitted 
the children of 30 years ago for the knotty problems of life is unequal to the task 
*>i fittting them to-day. You must train the hand of the child, yes sir, but you must 
also train the hand and mind and heart of the child if you want a full advantage. 

I hi I hairman — There are a tremendous number of people here and I wish you 
would be a little brief, because we have so many others. 

Mr. Walsh — I am too long in business not to stop when I have enough, and 
unfinished as it is, I will stop right now. 

Uderman Collins — I desire to make a motion. I have glanced over these papers 
and I find there are many speakers now and I move you that each speaker be limited 
to five minutes. 

Mr. William P, McCarthy — May I present before the vote is taken by the Com- 
mittee this point: We have listened to a long harangue by the previous speaker, 
and al aker on the opposite side might be permitted to say something in 

order that there would be a balance of argument. 

The Chairman — The number of your speakers will probably make up for it. 

(Motion of Alderman put and carried). 

The Chairman — We will now hear from Mr. P. J. Brady, the petitioner. 

Mr. P. J. Brady — In behalf of the organization that presented that petition to the 

■ nun which brought this Committee here this evening I desire to say 

this, both to the membership of your Committee here and to the people who have 

come l" appear before your Committee to present to them the conditions which exist 

in the Bronx schools and also suggestions they have for bringing about relief: 

That organized labor itself is not opposed to the Gary system, the Gary system 
as we unierstand it. The only particular point that we have made in reference to 
opposition to any operation of the Gary system was the industrial education schemes 
that goes with the Gary system. We have requested from the Board of Education 
and from the Board of Estimate that when the courses of study were being adopted 
in connection with the Gary scheme of education or any other scheme of education 
that advisory committee of the Board in which they inteend to give instruction be 
composed of an equal number of employers and an equal number of employees who 



15 

may sit down with the educator and between the five or six or seven of them, as the 
case may be, they should work out a course of study that would be really practical 
and of real value to. the children in the schools of the Bronx as well as other parts 
of the City. 

The Aldermanic Committee will agree and so will the people in the schools that 
they haven't any desire to have children receive any industrial instruction which will 
not be of value when they leave the schools and go out to look for a job and take 
their place in our industrial commercial life and it is with the knowledge that that 
instruction is not what it should be that we appealed first to the Board of Education 
for consideration of this matter, second to the Board of Estimate and third to the 
Mayor, and having got no relief we then came to the aldermen and asked that your 
Committee might investigate into this question to find out whether the many com- 
plaints enumerated in the petition were justified or not and if the facts as they 
actually exist in the schools bore out the complaints that we enumerate in that peti- 
tion and also the recommendations which we ask for relief. 

What I ask for on behalf of organized labor and of the working people generally 
who send peoeple to school in New York and in the Bronx, but particularly in the 
Bronx which at the present time seems to be the hotbed of Gary, pro-Gary and 
anti-Gary systems, and I assure your Committee you will hear tonight very intense 
argument for and against, but that is not what I had in mind before presenting the 
petition. What I had in mind is this, in getting for the children that attend the 
public schools of the City of New York the best system of education it was possible 
for them to give them. That is the reason we presented the petition and it makes 
no difference to us who originated the scheme, what particular label it bears, if we 
are going to get a good system we want your Aldermanic Committee to recommend 
it so that the Board of Education itself, which was so lax, will have a recommen- 
dation from a Committee representing the people through the Board of Aldermen and 
] want to say frankly to you this: That if the Board of Education itself had taken 
the same pains that your Aldermanic Committee is now taking, to go into the mat- 
ter ana get into direct touch with the people who send children to schools by hold- 
ing these meetings in the boroughs of New York, or by inviting the people down- 
trwn, if necessary, that petition would not be presented by organized labor and if 
they had given any suggestion of hearing suggestions from people who are on the 
job, even if they do lack a little of the intelligence they are supposed to have in order 
to be appointed to the Board of Education, then these suggestions would come from 
the parents of the school children, from the mechanics really on the job and turn- 
ing out the finished article. 

I ask your committee after you hear the petitions and suggestions made by the 
people of the Bronx tonight that in addition to that you agree to visit the schools 
in the Bronx, to look into this duplicate system and that you find out for yourself 
just how many overcrowded classes there are in the Bronx. The normal number of 
child] en should be 35 to any one teacher. I want you all to go down to Mr. Clark's 
school, No. 32, and in that school I understand there are 36 classes with over 50 
children, at least 35. There are over 25 classes with 45 to 49 children, over 10 with 
40 to 44 ehildren and there are no classes under 40. Now, if the normal number for 
any teacher to take care of is 55, and that is only one school in the Bronx — 

Alderman Haubert — By what authority do you say that? 

Mr. Brady — I am prepared to show that by the District School Superintendent. 

Alderman Haubert — By what rule or regulation? 

Mr. Brady — That exists in the Bronx. 

Alderman Haubert — I mean what rule or regulation? 

Mr. Brady— The 35? 

Alderman Haubert — The limit. 



16 

Mr. Brady — That is placed by educators and I understand by the Board of Edu- 
cation itself. 

Alderman Haubert — There is no rule, is there? 

Mr. Brady — No rule I know of. 

The Chairman — The Alderman who wanted to know if there was such a rule. 

Mr. Brady — There is no law. It is a custom that has grown up inside of the 
school system from the point of the teachers themselves, who know the normal of 
children which they can handle in an intelligent practical way, and that have been 
assigned to them. The teachers own opinions are they cannot handle more than 35 
and give to those children that for which they come to school — 

Alderman Haubert — By the Executive Rule they are forced to teach more. 

Mr. Brady — They are forced to teach or leave the system, but the point I want 
to make in connection with that system is this, that if a teacher has, in w' 
posed to be time for 35 children, 50 or more to take care of, she cannot give the 
individual attention to those children to properly develop their minds to be thor- 
oughly versed in the three R's and other things, so the children will leave school 
possibly with a smattering of knowledge: and the development they came to school 
to get is more clearly defined and more clearly given in practical use, and the point is 
that I want to make is that when those children go out to get jobs in industries, that 
is when that school system's faults show, if they have not been properly taken care 
of, and in a great many instances, parents of children think the children are stupid 
and that they are not intelligent enough to absorb the education supposed to be given 
in schools. 

I am getting away from the question, but the point I want to make is this : I 
am asking your Aldermanic Committee to see for themselves the actual conditions 
existing in the Bronx schools as well as those in other schools throughout the City, 
to visit these schools either in the afternoon or in the morning, and to look particu- 
larly into the industrial scheme of Gary, to look around for playground facilities pro- 
vided for children at these schools and to find out what steps are taken to care 
for the children when they are not in the classroom. 

The Chairman — Helen D. Koeblisch, President of the Children's Welfare Com- 
mittee. 

Helen D. Koeblisch — There has been almost everything said that ought to be 
said, but I say when we have the Gary system let us have it the way it really is, 
not the way it is in some schools as they begin now. Now, we have in the schools 
now too few to put the Gary system in. We have to have new schools altogether, 
which we need very badly here in the Bronx, and I think all the other things are 
said that I wanted to say and it is no use to repeat anything more. Thank you. 

The Chairman— Mrs. J. J. Wolff, of the Mothers' Club of Public School 39. of 
the Bronx. 

Mrs. 1. T. Wolff — I have a written report. 

The Chairman — Thanks. The written report I want to have on the record. Just 
give us the points of it within five minutes and anyone else who has written reports, 
after the five minutes limit is up, we will receive everything, and I personally assure 
you that I will read everything contained in the written reports. 

Mrs. Wolff — Gentlemen of the Board of Aldermen, Mr. Chairman. Ladies and 
Gentlemen present: I represent the Mothers' Club of Public School 39 in the Bronx. 
For the past 7 or 8 years we had the record of endeavoring to secure the establish- 
ment of proper school facilities for the proper education of our children both from 
the Board of Education and from the city officials, and during that time the con- 
gestion was so great in our neighborhood it was necessary for us to hold a mass 
meeting in 1911 to show cause to the Hon. late Mayor Gaynor, Dr. Maxwell and the 
Board of Estimate, why additions should be built and why there was need of more 
school houses to be built to meet the increased population which had increased the 



17 

school population and it was then that our club recommended the buying of school 
sites and the erection of new school buildings. 

Since then our addition to 39 has been built, the new school at P. S. 52, and P. 
S 48, and besides we received relief by hired annexes and portable buildings. Some 
of the portable buildings housing our children were a disgrace to the City of New 
York. Liberal support of education is the foundation on which the City builds. 

How many citizens pay the taxes which yields the millions into the City Treasury 
appropriated yearly for the schools are qualified by knowledge of the facts whether 
the money is wisely expended or not? 

For years the school system has been the subject of contention, as you all know, 
and in my report I go on to state what our children need, and that we, in my opinion, 
are working for the best interests of our children, and we do not believe in the part 
time situation, or in the Gary system, or the double session, or any other plan coming 
into our schools, and that was made the chief consideration, the welfare of the 
children. I believe economy was made the main point. We really do object to party, 
personal, or foundation influences in our schools, and we believe that these hearings 
which we, through various organizations of the City with whom our club has affiliated, 
fought for, should hear only parents, parents who want to show to your Board the 
conditions as they exist in the schools to-day, and we really think the other side 
should be heard some other time, because these sessions here are for parents who 
wish to recite their grievances, in other words. 

Why do we need the Rockefeller Foundation to the government of our City to 
shape the education of the youth of this country? Why do we need society women 
who have no children in our public schools, including the Committee of One Hundred 
who appointed themselves a committee at the open hearing of the Board of Education, 
or agencies such as the Women's Municipal League, to foster the Gary plan or the 
double session plan or the Wirt plan ; or whatever name you give it. 

Why do we need the advice of these ladies to tell us that they will work on this 
Committee to create public opinion without due regard to the parents of our school 
children? 

We protest against the influences of outside agencies in our schools. 

We protest against the enforcement of the double session plan for which many of 
our schools are not adequately equipped. 

We protest against the drawing of sectarian lines in our schools, and stand 
opposed to have religion brought into the schools. 

And here I might say in Public School 39 we had trouble only the other day, 
when sectarian lines were drawn by a teacher in a school against a parent, or I might 
say against a Rabbi who came to the school on graduation day, who came before the 
parents and gave them advice, and we want that omitted, and we want no Gary system. 
I will leave with you the report of what the teacher said and what the mother had 
been told by one of the trustees in the school, and I think it is about time that parents 
took part. We stand for more new school buildings and more high schools and 
better facilities, and we stand opposed to the Gary plan about to be introduced into 
Public School 39, until the other 12 schools have tried the plan sufficiently to prove 
the success of it. , 

The Chairman — Mr. F. E. Donlon. of Public School 39, representing the teachers 
in regard to the complaints made by the Parents' Association. 

Mr. H. E. Donlon — The parents of this Association have been very active in find- 
ing fault. Doctor Dwyer and persons who are in a position to judge, say that our 
school is an A-l school, and it has been said on many occasions to be the best in 
The Bronx and Manhattan. It is an injustice to have the statements made concerning 
Public School 39, that have been made and that are without foundation, for we have 
been reported as going down, that our school has been going down gradually. I can- 



18 

not see how it has been going down when we placed more girls in the Hunter College 
than ever before, and our school has the highest standing in all the districts and is 
marked A-l by the Board of Education, by persons in a position to judge us, so I 
take umbrage at the reflection being thrown at every member of the school. Our 
school is in just as good condition as it ever was. 

The Chairman — Mrs. E. Muhlfeld. 

Mrs. E. Muhlfeld — I am not in favor of nor against anything. My children all 
attended School 44, and the children who have been graduated from that school at 
Prospect Avenue and 176th Street years ago have had good records, and have had 
good records in High School, but since we have had the new system a year ago, I 
cannot say what system it is — it is not the duplicate plan ; it might be called a duplicate 
plan ; it is not the Gary plan, nor is it a part time plan, it is just the principal trying 
his very best with the assistance of efficient teachers to install the best system he can 
do to accommodate the crowd of children. 

We have Superintendent Taylor's record of the school being built for 1,854 seating 
capacity. The register to-day is 2,916. By letting all the children have a seat, and 
then by crowding 400 children in the auditorium, and then by crowding the playground 
to the full, when they put 300 in there it is very crowded, with very bad air condi- 
tions — of course, the school authorities have nothing to do with that, that is the 
condition — they can house about 2,500 or 2,600, leaving a balance of 300 that cannot 

i commodated in the school. That is under the duplicate plan, if it is called the 
duplicate plan, and 300 would be barred from the school, but of course, we cannot bar 
children, so they are brought in. consequently the children are given enough time in 
the auditorium and enough time in the other activities to accommodate the crowd. 

That simply is the condition existing there, because I know there are 300 there of 
overflow and 1 also know that they cannot have a duplicate plan. A year ago we sent 
out complaint to Mr. Willcox, also to the Board of Trade in The Bronx. We sent 
letters to all the newspapers. The Board of Trade unfortunately laid it on the table 
to give the new Gary plan a chance. 

Whenever any one advocates the Gary plan I point out that Public School 45 has 
every provision of the Gary plan, but it has been said the City cannot afford to give 
every school the conditions they have in Public School 45. It would be much more 
expensive to put a Gary school than to put a plain, ordinary school house. 

I am here now because I have been out hunting for taxpayers to try and see 
if I could not force, almost, the Board of Education to house our overflow children 
between Public School 6 and Public School 44. It is not a case of system, and I 
sec so many people from Public School 45 here to-night. They can tell you, I am 
sure, the very best qualities of that school. I would not try to say anything against 
it, and principally against its principal, because he has been a man that has helped 
people out of his own pocket, and certainly he is in the right place when he is principal 
of that school, but at the same time the City could not give the other schools those 
accommodations. 

We have a book written by Doctor Taylor. I see Doctor Taylor here to-night. 
We are not antagonistic to any one. We are simply here for the children. 

The thing is to find out what room there is in the building and then to develop 
it on that particular line. Now, with the school systems we have we cannot do that, 
because the room in one building is good for one thing and in some other school it 
is good for something else. How on earth could you, even in Public School 44, find 
room if you have not the room? Or how on earth could you find the same thing in 
Public School 45? We really have no system. We have just got what we have got. 

The Chairman — Mrs. William E. Lichtenberg. 

Mrs. W. E. Lichtenberg — Mrs. Muhlfeld has elaborated everything I had to say 
and I will send you this statement by mail. There is no use for any repetition. 



19 

The Chairman — That is very good. Everything you send on will appear in the 
record. • - 

Mrs. Lichtenberg — I' will give you authentic figures. 

The Chairman — Mrs. Thomas A. Hand, Local School Board 26. 

Mr. Clark — Mrs. Hand merely wished her appearance noted. 

The Chairman — Mr. William P. Mulligan, Civic Center Committee. 

Mr. William P. Mulligan — Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen : I have quite 
an interest in this subject, but I am going to discuss it chiefly from the point of lack 
of school facilities in The Bronx. 

I some years ago had some active connection as a member of the faculty of the 
institutions in Greater New York, and before passing to the question of the lack of 
facilities in The Bronx, I want to say this, that the president of that institution, who 
is noted a doctor of revered memory, had one particular thing with reference to that 
institution, and if I mention the name of the institution some of you gentlemen will 
know the standing of the institution; it is the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute, and his 
motto was "No fads." 

Now, what the Gary system is, or the way it is, or what it will accomplish, or 
what good it will do, or what harm it will do, I am not prepared to discuss. That is 
something that has been worked into the educational system since I took an active 
interest in educational matters. I, however, take a very keen interest in this question 
now, because of being the father of six children. Those children are dependent 
upon facilities afforded by this City of New York. Now, I have two girls down in 
Hunter High School. I do not believe the Gary system has yet been introduced there. 
I do not think it has any chance of introduction, but from my observation I want to> 
say that the system that is in vogue there can hardly be improved upon. (Applause.) 
From my former connection with the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute I want to pay 
my compliments to the Hunter High School. 

Now, gentlemen, we in The Bronx are sadly in need of High School facilities. 
I know many pupils who have graduated here in The Bronx from the common schools, 
parochial schools and other schools, have been unable to have the facility for education 
in High Schools in The Bronx. Many of them are unable to attend the High Schools 
that are here, because these schools are overcrowded. They go down to Washington 
Irving, Stuyvesant, and to other schools down in Manhattan, and I am told that a 
census was taken in one of the branches in Hunter High School in Manhattan not long 
ago to show the place of residence of the different young ladies who attended there and 
it was found that 90 per cent, in that school came from The Bronx. 

Now, those girls have to go down in the early morning. They go down in the 
rush hours, and it is not only a terrible inconvenience, but it is a positive hardship for 
young girls at the tender ages at which they "are attending those schools to go through 
the crowded rush of those hours" in the morning when they have to go to get down to 
those schools down town, and I say it is a crying shame and a reflection upon the 
authorities who have the power to provide proper facilities for The Bronx. (Applause.) 

I do not know the merits of these industrial features, but if there are merits to 
them then The Bronx should have the advantages of those industrial features in their 
High Schools, and there is no high school — this section here, for example, pupils from 
Tremont section, must either go to Westchester, to Evander Childs' High School, or 
down to Morris High School, which is now overcrowded and unable to accommodate 
the number of pupils that are applying there, or else go to Manhattan. Why shouldn't 
we here in this particular section, and living in this particular section, and speaking 
for this particular section, I ask why shouldn't we have a High School in Tremont? 

That is the idea I have in mind and want to impress upon you gentlemen. 

The Chairman — Mr. L. Sutro, Committee of Education of the Chamber of Ccm- 
merct of the State of New York. 



20 

Mr. Lionel Sutro — I have been listening with a great deal of interest to what has 
been said, but I came up here for one purpose, and that purpose I find has not been 
touched upon as yet, though it is half-past nine, and I have not heard from anybody 
what the Gary system is. I have heard insinuations and innuendoes and all sorts of 
veiled attacks on that system. 

Alderman Collins — This is no meeting to discuss the Gary system. 
Alderman Haubert — What have you got to say about it? 

Mr. Sutro — Nothing al all. I want to ask you as a member of the Chamber 
of Commerce and of the Committee on Education of that Chamber of Commerce 
that somebody be heard to discuss that system. I ask that as a right, as a citizen, and 
as a member of the Chamber of Commerce. 

The Chairman — Do you want to speak on it yourself? 
Mr. Sutro — No I want somebody called who does know something 
Alderman Collins — This meeting was not called for that system. 
Mr. Sutro — Apparently it was, from the insinuations made against that system. 
Alderman Collins — Do you live in the Bronx? 
Mr. Sutro — I desire to know something about it. 

The Chairman — Alderman Collins wants to know do you reside in the Bronx? 
Mr. Sutro — I do not. but the Chamber of Commerce covers the entire State of 
New York. 

Alderman Collins — We want to hear from some peoeple in the Bronx who know 
the conditions in the Bronx. 

The Chairman — Mr. William P. McCarthy, Division of Public Schools No. 12. 
Do you represent an association ? 

Mr. William P. McCarthy — I represent the Board of Education. 
The Chairman — Yes. Go ahead. 

Mr. Sutro — I would like to rise to a point of information, whether the Board 
of Education covers any larger division than the Chamber of Commerce of the State 
of New York? 

The Chairman — Let us start right on it. 
Mi. Sutro — I tell you I have. 

The Chairman — Let us understand each other right now. 
Mr. Sutro — Yes. 

The Chairman — I asked you to speak. You said that you had nothing to speak 
upen. 

Mr. Sutro — You asked whether I lived in the Bronx and I answered that the 
Chamber of Commerce covers the State of New York. 
Alderman Collins — Do you want to speak on it? 

Mr. Sutro — I do not want to speak. I do want to hear from some one who does 
know about this system. 

Alderman Collins — We want some one to speak on the conditions in the Bronx. 
Mr. William 1'. McCarthy — I was very much interested in the statements made 
by Alderman Walsh earlier in the evening, because in my judgment it summarizes 
everything thai could be said about school conditions in the Bronx, all the unhappy 
conditions he referred to as existing, and the Board of Education is making every 
effort and has made in the past every effort to cure those conditions. 

Reference is made to the duplicate school system. It is a matter of common 
knowledge that it is impossible, as Mr. Walsh stated earlier, it is an absolute impos- 
sibility to provide buildings which would cure the conditions which exist at the present 
time. In order that that might be done, as well as to give the, children the benefit 
of a broader, a better education than before, the duplicate school system has been 
introduced. 

The duplicate school system provides 40 per cent, more capacity in each school 
than it could under a single sitting system. A school which could accommodate 1.800 



21 

with a single sitting can accommodate 2500 with the duplicate session, giving them all 
the time they had and more for the essentials. In other words, they have 210 min- 
utes a day — 

Voices — No, no, no. 

Mr. McCarthy — The duplicate school system gives 210 minutes a day to arithmetic, 
English, history and geography, and so far as I have been able to inspect the course 
of study provided by the New York public schools, under no circumstances were 
more than 800 minutes a week given to those same subjects, giving, therefore, 250 
minutes a week more on those essentials. 

Voices — No, no, no. 

Mr. McCarthy — In order to answer the point, if I may be permitted, of the 
clamor, there are 350 minute periods a day now for academic instruction, and one 
60 minute period a day, and these 210 minutes are given entirely to English arithme- 
tic, history and geography, and all the other time, that is 250 minute periods out of 
a possible 1850. 

Voices — They don't get it. 

Mr. McCarthy — All the rest of the time is given to activities ; 100 a day, and 50 
to playing or auditorium time. 

Voices — No, no, no. 

Mr. McCarthy — The reference to the curing of the conditions as regards the erec- 
tion of schools: The Board of Education is planning to erect a number of school 
buildings in this Borough. It has erected during the past 10 years 15 large build- 
ings; public schools 42, 43, 45, 46, 47, 48, 50, 51, 52, 53, 55, and 56 and 57 is now in 
the course of construction. Here are 15 new buildings erected during the past 10 
years. These 15 buildings would house ordinarily about 30.000. The growth of the 
population has been so great that it has been impossible to provide the funds neces- 
sary to erect more buildings in the Bronx. 

It was stated here that conditions in the Bronx are worse, possibly, and I assure 
you that 57 per cent, of the part titme children, double session children, of the City of 
New York, are confined to Brooklyn, and only 21 per cent, of the part time children 
are confined to the Bronx ; 54 per cent, of the register of the Brooklyn children are 
part time, and 15 per cent, of the register of the Bronx children are on part time. 
I am stating to you the facts which are of record and can be obtained through 
searching the records of the Board of Education. 

The duplicate system has cured truancy. 

Voices — Oh, oh, oh. (Hisses.') 

Mr. McCarthy — I expected to hear that. The records of the Board of Education 
show that. 

The Chairman — We have -to have order. 

A Voice — Let somebody talk who knows something, please. 

The Chairman — We will give absolute attention. We are here for a purpose. 

Alderman Collins — Unless we can get order a motion will be made to adjourn 
and the hearing will be put over to some other time, but let us get down to some facts. 
This gentleman is giving us some facts and we listened to everybody. Let us now 
give him the same fair consideration we gave you people. 

Mr. McCarthy — The statements I have made are statements based on the records 
of the Board of Education. 

They stated to let somebody talk who knows. I have been a principal in the 
Bronx schools for 20 years, principal of four different schools in the Bronx. I have 
had 30,000 pupils in the Bronx under my personal supervision, 500 teachers under my 
personal supervision. I graduated several thousand boys and girls in the Bronx, 
and I think I can speak from knowledge of conditions. There are 200 of my grad- 
uates who are teaechers today in the public schools of the City of New York. There 



22 

are 10 pupils of mine who are principals in the City of New York City today. I 
think that when I do speak I speak authoritatively. 

With regard to the various activities which it has been proposed to introduce in 
the schools, may I say in every case where the Board of Education contemplates a 
duplication, that we consult as to the character of the industrial instruction desired, 
and in many cases where complaints are made we draw it to their attention and ask 
them to revise their judgment? 

The Chairman — Mrs. P. F. Frost, President of the Mothers' Council. 

A Voice — Do you live in the Bronx? 

Mrs. Arthur — I protest. I ask as a representative of the Gary School League 
that Mrs. Frost be granted respect and attention by everyone here. 

The Chairman — She shall be given attention. , 

Mr. Sutro — I would like to know why I was asked if I lived in the Bronx. 

Alderman Collins — I asked you that in order to determine the facts in the 
Bronx. 

Mr. Sutro — Ask this lady the same thing. 

Alderman Collins — I think she will tell us. 

Mr. Sutro — I was asked that question, and I have the same privilege as anybody 
else. 

Alderman Collins — I asked you whether you lived in the Bronx. 

Mr. Sutro — You asked me whether I lived in the Bronx, and I would like the 
same question asked her, and I would like to know what bearing that has on the 
matter. I think as a citizen I have that right. 

The Chairman — You were asked if you had anything to speak about and you 
said you had nothing to say. 

Mr. Sutro — I came up here to hear people say something on that question, and 
I do not see why 1 should be treated any different than anybody else. I protest. 

Mrs. Frost — I have lived for many years in the Bronx and I know a great deal 
about Bronx conditions. 

M'Wman Collins — That is enough. 

Mrs. Frost— I represent the Mothers' Council of Public Schools of the City of 
New York and, gentlemen, the hard part, and ladies, too, for me tonight is to not 
represent all the schools, because our officers come from Evergreen, Long Island, the 
end of the City Line; and Little Neck, Long Island, the end of the City Line, and 
from the end of the City Line in the Bronx, east and west, and gentlemen, from 
the reports that we have heard we have tried, like in the war troubles, to be neutral, 
and I want to say to you as President, it is a great thing. If you think there is any 
fun in it. try it yourself, to be neutral. Xow. we are to have an opportunity to 
speak to you, anil I want to say whatever I have to say, and I am only sorry I have 
not more time. 

I live three blocks from the Bronx line at Mount Vernon, and we expect to be 
taken in. I regret I have only five minutes because I have this report of the Bronx 
conditions of the schools, that I have put in several whole days at visiting and I 
have not only been doing that for the Bronx, but I could speak for Manhattan right off 
the reel now-, and for Brooklyn, Long Island and Queens and Staten Island of the con- 
ditions in those places, but I will say I have visited within the last week four schools 
in the Bronx, three having the Gary plan, and the other not quite having the Gary 
plan, having something. 

I would like to report to you the conditions of the schools which I have visited 
from a fair standpoint. I do not care anything about the name of it, but as a repre- 
sentative of the parents I want to call your attention to the conditions in the Bronx, 
and if they can be relieved we will welcome such relief. 

I describe the conditions in this report, which will take 10 minutes to read, but 
I can tell you what the conditions are as I found them, in the auditorium, in the 



23 

playgrounds, for the teachers and everything else, but I want to say that I do know 
a little about School 45. I respect that man who heads that school wonderfully, but 
I want to say that I visited that school all one day. Some one here says they don't 
know how much it cost. Well, I will tell you, just tell you about that, because you 
want to know, gentlemen, and $750,000 have been expended since the first day of Jan- 
uary, 1915, on Public School 45. (Applause.) 

Please do not interrupt. I do not care for interruptions or applause. This is 
real business. 

The annex, I know, one field that they have to deal with, has old school facilities 
and a very large playground. I want to say that the man in charge of that is pretty 
well equipped in some ways, but a good deal of his equipment never came from the 
Board of Education. It has come from the hands of his own pupils and the way he 
does as well as he does it is wonderful, but he has a playground where he can turn 
a thousand out while a thousand more do something else. 

Now, gentlemen, in the sense that I have visited, and I can name them off to you, 
when the principals take me in to show me the rooms, the commercial rooms, nothing 
in them; the teachers' rooms, typewriting rooms, nothing in them, and they all say, 
bye and bye I am expecting these things and it has been two years and over, and this 
one building is not completed, at $750,000 expense to the typewriters. So, gentlemen, 
I do not even want five minutes. I only want to say that my appearance here is for 
the Mothers' Council of Public Schools, and under the circumstances and conditions 
which we find for the pupils and the teachers we find they have been neglected, be- 
cause what do we find? To-day we find business men and even sweat shops giving 
better conditions for efficiency than the teachers get in any school. I am not speaking 
for the Bronx alone. In no school do I find a recess room for the teacher, a place 
where they can have in this system to spend their rest periods. 

The Chairman — The Reverend Doctor Clifton Harby Levy, of Tremont Temple. 

Alderman Friedlander — May I ask, is the previous speaker for the Gary system? 

Mrs. Frost — I did not think we had to state. 

Alderman Friedlander — I am only asking that question. Do you favor it? I 
gather from what you said that you did favor it. 

Mrs. Frost — No. 

Alderman Friedlander — I favor it, yes, sir. 

Mrs. Frost — I favor it, yes, sir. 

Alderman Friedlander — That is all I want to know. 

Dr. Clifton Harby Lev}' — Ladies and gentlemen, I am only going to take a mo- 
ment. 1 have been working for eight years with children and the one thing which 
I have at heart is the interest of the child. I have felt, with many of the other 
speakers", that we in the Bronx are terribly neglected. I know that from 1900 to 1910 
the increase in population was 116 per cent, and the Board of Education could not 
keep up with that increase, but when Mr. Wirt explained the system of the duplicate 
plan it seemed to me that it was logical and that it might be made efficient. It seemed 
to me that if any man came to me with a plant which represented an investment of 
millions and said I can show you how you can utilize that plant, not only once a day 
and but once a, day and 40 per cent, more per day, without injury to those who are 
gding to be reached, that that ought to be a good plan. 

I have followed up the work as carefully as I could, getting it from two sides, 
watching the introduction of that plan into the schools and watching the schools that 
came under my view through the examination of the papers of the pupils to see what 
if any results were shown. We have not had enough time to find out from the second 
method, but I have found this, that many public school teachers have been converted. 
Those who were opposed to the so-called Gary plan have been converted to it. They 
are in a better position to understand whether they are giving the right service to the 
children, I think, than any parent can be, for this reason: They have devoted their 



24 

lives to that work of education. I believe, taken as a body, we have a most wonder- 
fully self-sacrificing and conscientious set of men and women in our public school 
teachers (applause), and if they did not feel that they were getting the very best 
possible results from that, there would be a tremendous protest from every one of 
them, but I have talked with any number of teachers and principals and I have found 
that those who have started with prejudice against it, they come out in favor of it. 
That is one side of the case. 

But, now, from a practical standpoint, gentlemen, you know very well that we 
now have, for instance, under existing conditions many plants that have been forced 
to work overtime. They have put two shifts or three shifts of men in them. We 
have been told by one of the ex-Aldermen here that we cannot meet the conditions 
and you know that we cannot get schools fast enough to meet the number of children 
that are growing up all around us and coming up here. We are going to have worse 
conditions over on the west side in a year or two. What are we going to do to utilize 
that plant as much as we can ? 

If the Gary system does not suit us, if we find we do not get the very best re- 
sults out of it, we will modify it and the one thing that commends itself in that 
duplicate plan is that it is wonderfully elastic. Mr. Wirt once said, and I heard him 
when he first explained it, he said you can have any school that you determine — 
you meaning your educational authorities or your parents — any kind of a school that 
you make up your mind that you want. That is far better than the old system where 
we had to have a hard and fast system under which, I am sorry to say, with all the 
conscientious work of our teachers I was very often disheaterned when I read the 
examination papers of my children and saw how badly they spelled and how miserable 
the composition was. 

The Chairman — Max F. Wolff, representing the Chamber of Commerce, files a 
brief. I do not know whether you want to be heard myself. 

Mr. Max F. Wolff — Mr. Chairman, members of the Board of Aldermen and 
ladies and gentlemen, I believe, as Chairman of the Educational Committee of the 
Bronx Chamber of Commerce and as a member of the Children's Welfare Committee 
of Bronx County, I have investigated the schools and the conditions in those schools 
in this county for the last three years that I have the right to say I never found them 
deplorable. 

I am proud to say that the Bronx Chamber of Commerce is the first and only 
civic body of this county that has gone on record as strenuously opposed to the Gary 
system of vocational training. (Applause.) 

We have men in our Chamber of Commerce who are responsible business men 
who have to deal with graduates when they leave the public school and those business 
men have found that the three R's are always neglected in the present education. 

Mr. Chairman, I want to draw your attention to the fact that The City of New 
York at the present time has a most extensive school system of any city in the 
United States. I have the figures from Boston, Philadelphia, from Chicago, from 
Baltimore, and from San Francisco, and I can prove to you that the principal activity 
of the educational expense in New York City is by far above any other city in the 
United States. By adoption of the Chicago plan of education The City of New York 
would save nine million dollars annually. By adoption of the Baltimore plan of edu- 
cation The City of New York would save twenty-two million dollars annually. By 
adoption of the San Francisco plan The City of New York would save annually and 
by the adoption of other plans we would save annually. 

Now why should we in New York City, -vith our high taxes, look out for experi- 
ments instead of profiting by the systems adopted in other cities of the Union? 
(Applause.) 

Mr. Chairman, I believe that if you lcok over the school conditions in Boston 
and if you find that the school budget of Boston includes military training, includes 



25 

all of the vocational training, includes teachers' pensions and pensions to janitors and 
attendance officers and so forth, and yet per capita is lower than New York City, 
then you will admit that the school administration of New York City is wasteful 
and extravagant and under the power of one man and one man only. (Applause.) 
Mr. Chairman, I believe that the first thing to do is to appeal to the State Legislature 
for a State investigation of the public school system of The City of New York, 
(Applause.) Mr. Chairman, I can tell you that Governor Whitman has assured me 
by letter that he will sign any resolution introduced by the New York Legislature 
which brings about an investigation of our public school system. 

Mr. Chairman, I believe that all the other conditions are contained in the brief 
which I have filed. The school budget of Boston is per capita lower, as I have said. 
There they have elementary schools in the evening, common schools officers' pensions, 
department of salesmanship, department of training. 

If we look over the New York budget and find we are paying annually thirty 
thousand dollars for food service, thirty-two thousand dollars for school supplies, one 
hundred and fifty thousand dollars for furniture, you will agree with me that we are 
wasting the money of the taxpayers. 

The Chairman — We will next hear from Mr. Joseph S. Taylor, District Super- 
intendent of School 25. 

Mr. Joseph Taylor — Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen : I am representing the 25th 
and 26th Districts, of which I have supervision in the Borough of The Bronx. These 
schools contain 60,000 children — the largest district in the City of New York. 

In 1905, when the first duplicate school was started, the register of my schools 
was 52,300. At present it is 58,400, an increase in two years of 6,100; percentage of 
increase, 11. 

The part time in 1915, when we started with this reorganization, was 13,900. The 
part time at present is 5.900; decrease in part time, 8,000; per cent, of decrease, 57. 

In other words, while the population has increased 11,000 the part time has de- 
creased 57 per cent, through the duplication of these schools. During this same time 
two new schools have been opened with a capacity under the old plan of 3,600; deduct- 
ing this 3,600 from the 6,100 increase of children in the two years, it leaves us a 
net increase over and above the provision that has been made through two new school 
buildings that had nothing to do with the duplicate system — a net increase of 2,500. 

The situation is this : We had a net increase of 2,500 in two years and I have 
decreased the part time by 8,000 in these two years. 

The total part time on the old plan to-day, if we had not duplication of schools, 
would be 18,900. The number of schools required to take care of that population 
would be 10, and those schools would cost five million dollars. In other words, we 
have done with one million dollars by duplicating the school what it would have cost 
five million dollars to do under the old plan. 

As a business proposition that is exactly what has been done and I would like 
to correct my friend Mrs. Frost's figures about the proportion for school 45. She 
got the thing a little mixed. $750,000 were appropriated for the entire 12 schools 
that were to be reorganized in my district, and those $750,000 made provision for ad- 
ditions to each building, a number of class rooms, a number of shops, an auditorium, 
a swimming pool and eight or ten class rooms apiece. Those additions have not as 
yet been built. (Laughter). 

I am perfectly willing to admit that because I can prove an alibi. It is a fact 
we have had the money for nearly two years and they have not been built. You 
can find out yourself just what has intervened. The schools that are receiving these 
annexes contain a register of 10.000. As soon as we have these additions we shall 
practically wipe out all the part time in my district, with a total appropriation of about a 
million dollars. 



26 

The exact figures are: In 1915, $750,000; in 1916, $695,100 additional, but that 
includes a new school, which cost nearly $500,000, which is to be erected at 180th Street 
and Crotona Avenue. 

Now, a word as to the educational feature of this duplication. The 11 schools 
that are now operating on the duplicate plan contain a school population of 30,000 
children. Here are some of the figures as to what some of the children are getting 
now as compared with what they were getting before the organization. Then I shall 
give you merely the summary. Here is a total showing the number of children re- 
ceiving industrial experience. I do not call that industrial training — who have no 
such opportunity before the reorganization. 

Industries having girls only, 4,700. 

Industries for boys only, 6,400. 

Total, 15,000. 

I would like to file this report. 

A voice : I request that the time be extended. 

A voice: I second that motion (applause). 

The Chairman — Then Mrs. Frost's time will be extended. 

A voice : He has facts ; additional facts. 

Alderman Curley — As a representative of the 34th Aldermanic District, we desire 
to be heard on this question, and I will give away on my right to speak in favor of 
the district superintendent. 

The Chairman — Wait until we hear what the other gentlemen have to say. 

Alderman Collins — There are quite a number of other speakers. I am opposed, not 
that I do not desire to hear, but we want to hear all the speakers. 

Mrs. Frost — I did not have all of my five minutes because they talked about where 
I lived. 

The Chairman — Just as soon as we hear the others then we will take the time 
allotted and give it to Mr. Taylor. 

Mrs. Frost — I want to answer Dr. Taylor. 

The Chairman — Not now. The next speaker is Mr. William H. Kuyler. 

Mr. William H. Kuyler — Mr. President, I do not think a man of my kind needs 
any more than five minutes, because I am one of the subjects of what you might 
say of poor education, and it makes me feel that it is really an honor to speak to men 
of this calibre that can address a meeting and have the word that is needed. 

I am of foreign birth and can merely make myself understood and heard, being 
elected as president of a parents' association, and that puts out the very little light 
that was in me to stand such, and it is only a short time that I have been such. 

When I hear people of intelligence telling us that the Gary system has reduced 
truants it is not in the means that he has taken to reduce it. Has it been the Gary 
system that has reduced the truants? No. It has been the introduction of a system 
to reduce truancy — a system which has cost us an immense lot of money. Gentle- 
men, every man that hasn't done any wrong and lives 40 years and tries his best can 
be called a gentleman, and then get to know that he is a contemptible sort of a man 
with a note that he gets that he is liable for arrest for not sending his children to 
school when he has the doctor on the other side watching for the verdict. That is the 
reason there are no more truants. 

Then comes a man that knows more than I, as far as education goes, but not as 
to mental condition. He understood that the Board of Education cannot keep up 
with the conditions. Drown the children then (laughter). You understand, I should 
come out with a fancy wording, which I am not able to, but my idea is there. The 
Board of Estimate, as soon as our Parents' Association shall get a foothold on this 
here city, will come to terms with us and furnish the schools according to our children 
and take no excuse in a system. 



27 

The Chairman — Mr. Henry E. Maehrlin, Public School No. 27. 

Mr. Henry E. Maehrlin — I wish not to speak to-night as I have heard all I had 
to say spoken. 

The Chairman — Mrs. F. Mayer, Public School No. 28, representing 8 children. 

Mrs. F. Mayer — I would like to give you folks my experience with the public, 
schools covering about 23 years. The first five of my children went through under 
the old system and they were anything but a credit to the system. I have not time 
to give to the exact way or go into all details, but the last three children have cer- 
tainly done better in every respect and have received a broader education. 

I can see it in the child of 8 years. They have got a broader education under 
the new system. It is not a question of learning to be mechanical or anything else, 
but it merely broadens the child's vision and teaches it how to use its brains and 
hands in some manner. 

There are thousands of children graduated through the public school that 
would never have a chance to-day to graduate under the new system. 1 know under 
the old system they could not spell. 

My one daughter under the old system cost me $200 to put her in an office as 
a stenographer and typewriter and bookkeeper, which my other daughter is getting 
for nothing under this new system here. To-day she can do my typewriting for 
me for my club after only five months training, and do it as well as another girl 
that went through school. 

Another thing is, in the face of the high cost of living, if I understood a gar- 
den and had a garden, I could go into the country, but I do not know anything about 
it and cannot afford to hire a man. I am merely giving my experience. Take from 
it what you like. I could go into detail, but it would take me too long. Under the 
old system three of my children never got past the sixth grade. My girl was in one 
room all day, with one teacher, five days a week, five months out of the year, with 
a teacher upon the point of nervous prostration, with a rule on the desk to keep 
them in order. The girl's nerves could not stand that. They could not learn their 
lessons. They could not learn anything. I had to finish my girl's education at home 
and to-day she is a designer in one of the biggest houses in the city at a good salary, 
despite the little education she had. 

The Chairman — Frank Lowery, Common Cause Society. 

Mr. Frank Lowery — I am in the cause of everyone, the common cause. I speak 
for the common people and especially for the common people of The Bronx. I think 
I have a right to speak, for I, as young as I may look, am far older than a grand- 
father, which some have not reached; so don't laugh. I understand what I am 
talking about. 

Now, then, there are things in our public school system that I admire. There 
are other things that I do not admire. We have too much education in some re- 
spects and we have too little in others. Now, one has a theory; the other has a 
theory; everybody butts in and the consequence is there is bound to be a conflict. 

I claim that any education, to be education, must begin at the beginning, and, 
unless it begins at the beginning and starts logically from that process and logically 
finding its way to a finish, it cannot be an education. We have in the schoolrooms 
to-day teachers in our public schools who have put their private opinions before the 
pupils. Some of you have found that your children have ideas that you did not 
inculcate into them. Whose fault is this? Is it the fault of the Board of Education? 
No ; for they practically know nothing of it. It is being done slyly. 

Now, it is time for the taxpayers who are paying for the education of their 
children to see that their children get the proper kind of an education. Some of 
our public schools had what they call social centers. They went there, and one of 
the superintendents found that they had a nice mess of fish there. They had prac- 



28 

tically such a case that he was horrified. I would not like to explain his definition 
of it. 

You have got a great deal to contend with in the public schools. You have got 
different sorts of people coming from different lands, who say they are as good as 
an American and they will become an American and all this, and what are they 
doing? At one time, in a public school in New York City, there was a father of 
a family who found that his daughter, who was very young, was reprimanded for 
refusing to salute the flag. He found on investigation that she had been coaxed by 
one of the inmates of the public school to a socialistic conference and there taught 
to desecrate the flag. 

Now, according to the Gary plan, or any other plan, it gives us the best edu- 
cation. That is what we want to find out, and more meetings will have to be held 
before it is thoroughly sifted and we get at the truth. One or two meetings of this 
kind will be of no use There are conflicting ideas. They must be brought into 
contrast. There must be some discussion on the problems. Now, this is what I 
advocate ; that this meeting be continued in the near future and that we have more 
of these. 

The Chairman — Mrs. Marie L. Arthur, representing the Gary School League. 
Mrs. Marie L. Arthur — I asked permission to speak to-night as a representative 
of the Gary School League, but I have forgotten all the nice set speech that I came 
here with, and I am talking just as Mrs. Arthur, the mother of the everlasting 
eleven, and a mother from 52, a taxpayer, who, when she bought her little home, 
paid her first tax bill of $98, and this year she has paid $150. Now, that is why I 
am talking. 

In Public School 52 — it was built two years ago, and now it is to relieve the con- 
gestion of Public School 25 — five of my children have finished their school life. 
There are six still in process of going through. Those six children are going to 
public schools and are located in Public School 52, Public School 25 and the annex 
to Public School 52, which the Board of Education rents from St. Anselm's Roman 
Catholic Church, and they are in a parochial school, and I am better satisfied to 
have them there than when they were in the Methodist Church basement, because it 
is much more sanitary. 

1 know, as the mother of eleven children, that every single human being comes 
into the world with one thing they can do just a little better than they can do any- 
thing else, and I also know as a practical woman that God gave us this great big 
world, and just as he gave us this world in the raw, he sent workers to develop it, 
and the lawyer is just as necessary as the plumber and not one bit more so; the 
bricklayer, every form of labor, God has sent into the world, and he never yet sent 
a person into the world that was good for nothing. It is society and civilization 
with mistaken ideas that does that, and not God. 

I have heard a lot to-night about industrial training. I have heard a lot about 
vocational training, but, gentlemen, in the Gary system it is pre-pre-prevocational. 
It is taking a child, from 13 to 14, and giving it different tools to work with, so 
that that little soul finds itself, and we don't find a boy that God intended to be a 
first-class plumber being a mighty poor lawyer. 

This congestion is not of recent date. For eleven years the young Arthurs have 
been on part time and that is why I am pleading with you, that we have the Gary 
system in Public School 52, to give the five that are there now a chance at a full 
school day. 

Thank you. 
(Applause.) 

The CTiairman — Mr. Peter Schlosser. 

Mr. Peter Schlosser — Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen. First and foremost, 
1 heard Mr. Taylor speak here of swimming pools for public schools. I want to 



29 

protest against any public school swimming pools anywhere in the City of New 
York, for hygienic reasons absolutely, simply and only. (Applause.) I do not 
believe that the children in our public schools should be contaminated with diseases 
to gratify the ambitions of any horde of young phyisicians that want subjects to 
practice upon. (Laughter.) 

Secondly, I heard one rabbi say here he believed in the Gary system because 
of its elasticity. Well, gentlemen, the elasticity of the Gary system is only equalled 
by the elasticity of the mind that invented it and wants it introduced into our pub- 
lic schools, so that he can get the commercial and financial supremacy of the whole 
United States by training the growing young boy to be the competitor of his father. 
(Applause.) 

I want to say now, when I was a boy we did not have the congestion we have 
now in the public schools. Oh, no. They were not being taught pottery, tinkering, 
tailoring, cabinet making, plumbing, gasfitting, all those other things that are to 
qualify that 14-year old boy to work for a dollar and a half a day in opposition to 
his father, the mechanic, who is getting three dollars. I say to you, now, gentle- 
men, beware. There is such a thing as overeducation. The whole City of New 
York, the whole United States is filled with an overeducated force of educated para- 
sites, whom the working people have to support, and their creed is the American 
chevalier, "Why should I earn my bread and degrade myself with labor?" 

"I will remain a gentleman instead and steal it from my neighbor." 

The Chairman — Mr. H. Seidy, of the Walton School Parents' Association. 

Mr. H. Seidy — I am president of the Parents' Association of Public School No. 
30, of I41st Street and Brook Avenue. Last September the duplicate school system 
was inaugurated in that school, with the limited facilities we have had, and one good 
feature of it was this, that every child had a full school day. 

The school day ran from 8.30 to 3.30, with one hour for lunch, including the study, 
work and play systems. In December the Board of Education commenced to make 
alterations in the school to enable the proper operation of the system to be incor- 
porated. There were 73 classes in Public School 30. There are between 2,500 and 
3,000 pupils. The school was divided into two distinct parts, called the X school 
and the Y school, which consists of 36 classes. The classes in each one were from 
1-A to 8-B, but at the present time, due to the fact that the facilities are very limited, 
the Gary or duplicate plan system is in full operation only from 5-A to 8-B. The 
classes lower than that are on part time and will be until the full changes are made. 

I would like to read the programme which is carried out by the pupils of S-B 
under the duplicate plan system. 

On Monday morning the first study is arithmetic, which they have for 40 minutes. 
Then follows history, which consumes 40 minutes more. Then they go to the labora- 
tory for one hour. After that they attend the English classes for 40 minutes and are 
then dismissed for lunch. 

This brings the study of the morning from 8.30 to 11.40, and the lunch period 
continues to 12.40. That is some idea of the periods. 

The school is divided up into two parts as far as the lunch period is concerned, 
in order that the full use of the building can be maintained. One-half goes to lunch 
from 11.40 to 12.40 and the other half from 12.40 to 1.40. 

At 12.40 the children are back at their desks and go into the sewing class. That 
is one of the activities under this system as it is being operated in P. S. 30. The 
children are given a different activity every month, either science, or sewing, or cook- 
ing, or commercial work, and so on. 

Alderman Collins — Do the boys go in the sewing room? 

Mr, Seidy — In P. S. 30 the classes up to 8-B are strictly girls. There are no girls 
in the school above 4-B. 



30 

From 2 lo 2.40 they attend the High School and after 3,30 they attend the English 
class. That completes the day for Monday. 

Shall I read the whole week to you? 

Alderman Collins — Can you file it? 

Mr. Seidy — No, because I have to return this. 

The Chairman — Write it out and forward it to me or send it to the City Hall and 
we will be glad to make it part of the record. 

Mr. Seidy — One of the objections to the plan at the present time is that the 
children in some of the classes are obliged to carry their clothing. This is not due 
to the fault of the system. It is due to the fault of the construction of the building. 
There are not enough lockers at the present time, but they have been ordered and 
when installed there shall be a hook for every child in the school. 

The Chairman — If you have anything further to submit kindly forward it to me. 

Mrs. H. Rostenberg, mother of children attending Gary school. 

Mrs. H. Rostenberg — Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen: I just wish to say 
that within the last three years, notwithstanding the fact that there has been so much 
contention and that so many various platforms have arisen with so many various fol- 
lowers, I am not saying this as a matter of words, but it has been statistically proven 
that our school children have improved by far more than they ever did 20 years before 
that time, before the introduction of Gary into our New York schools. That is one 
fact. Another fact is this : That England and Canada are now trying to fight out 
the greatest problems in their entire history and are sending paid investigators to find 
out the exact working of the Gary system, because they feel convinced that the boys 
and skirls who will eventually come from Gary schools will be better fitted to fight, spiritu- 
ally, mentally, and in every way, the great problems of life; that Japan has entirely 
Garyized every school upon its island, and we who have it right here in our hands 
wish to cast it aside. Why, we are actually blind to one of the greatest movements in 
our entire history. 

I just want to tell you one more thing. My boy goes to a Gary school and it is 
not fully equipped, and for all that I am glad that he goes to a Gary school, because I 
feel that that is even better than the old-time school. My little fellow said to me, 
"Mother, if Gary has not given us anything it has done one thing. It has given us 
the auditorium, and the auditorium makes us feel so assured." Out of the mouths 
of babes. That is it in a nutshell. 

I liml,. ol tin- boys and girls that come from crowded, unsanitary homes, and the 
greater number of children going to public schools come from poor homes, where 
their souls are cramped and their minds are cramped and they come to the inspiring 
atmosphere of Gary and they feel a potent factor stirring within them, and with Gary 
to help them they improve wonderfully. 

For that one thing we ought to hail Mr. Wirt, a tremendous aid to Gary as a 
life saver. I think we ought to thank him and thank him as a prophet. 

The Chairman — Mr. August Hoebermann, representing the Bronx Parents Union. 

Mr. August Hoebermann — We represent the poorest class of people in the City 
of New York. I am surprised that we must come here to-night, with the number of 
organizations that we see here to-day, and I am very surprised because the Board 
of Education of the City of New York, to which we pay thousands and thousands of 
dollars, need the assistance of so many mothers' organizations, so many other organ- 
izations, that they must take care of the Board of Education. Now, it is the Board 
of Aldermen in the same conditions, that same line, and a thousand other organiza- 
tions must take care of them. 

Why can't the Board of Education do that alone? Our teachers go to work 
and have us people standing before them and teaching them, and they don't teach our 
children the three r's. Our teachers are not teaching them because they are too busy 



31 

for reading or writing, and we come down and come before the people to-night and 
see so many people coming to-night, every one parents of our children, and why can't 
the City of New York do it alone? 

Now, I will not fool your time away. You have men enough and you have heard 
my former partners. I thank you to-night and hope we will see you later on again. 
(Applause.) 

The Chairman — Mr. Greenthal, parent of pupil No. 45 School, Bronx. 

Mr. Greenthal — I have a son just after graduating from P. S. 45, and when he 
graduated from that school I had a chance of either sending him to Townsend Harris 
or Evander Childs. I was so pleased with the way the teachers of P. S. 45 handled 
him and what he learned under the Gary system, continued him under the Gary plan 
and he is now under it again, and I think if the children and people would just give 
this Gary plan a chance they will see it is the best plan for the public schools of the 
City of New York. 

The Chairman — Mr. Louis Margun, teacher of Public School 45. 

Mr. Louis Margun — Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen : I did not intend to 
speak to-night because I saw so many satellites and star orators in the meeting, but 
after listening to a few of them I have changed my mind and I feel quite in place. 
1 feel I have just as much right to speak at this meeting as a good many of the men 
who have never been in a school room and who have had a gread deal less educa- 
tion and have really no right to tell real men who have given their lives to the study 
of educational problems how to run a system (applause). I do not care for applause, 
except from a few people here who have been hissing every time a remark has been 
made. You have my approval to hoot me now. (Hisses.) I would like to have fair 
play. 

The Chairman — You are getting fair play. Come up here. We can hear you 
better. 

Mr. Margun — Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, I am here to listen to some 
more hisses, with the permission of the Chair. 

I feel that I have a right to speak in this matter, not because I have visited schools 
or because I have gone around to look for any sights and see children, but because 
I am in the school for ten years. I am handling boys for 10 years. I have worked 
under the other systems 8 years and I have worked under this system 2 years. 

I felt that I was getting along very well under the old system and I am very 
proud to say that, in the presence of my old principal, who seems to be present, and 
while I believe a great deal in this military feature of discipline which pleases so 
many parents as they enter a room, when they see a lot of children backed up like 
so many little prisoners in their seats, each one watching the teacher — God knows 
what he is doing but watching the teacher — when they see those rows so straight they 
say as they come in, why, there is a fine class. Look how they behave. Look how 
they sit there, and when they come to a Gary school they are not in a position to 
judge, any more than I was in a position to judge in a Gary school, when I entered 
Gary School No. 45 and was sorry the first day. I saw children 3, and you are invited 
to come in my room of Public School 45. You need not tell me when you are coming. 
You can inspect it at any time you like and you will find my children going around 
free and working and they know what they are talking about, too. 

Now, the point is this : In former days the schools were built for the conven- 
ience of the teachers. The teacher can much more easily handle a class when they 
are all placed in their seats in so many rows, and she knows where each one is for 
fear they may be in danger of doing something they say put your hands behind your 
backs. 

You have no such system with the Gary. We have the shops and they learn 
that way. We do the best we can by sending them to school in this way and not like 
prisoners. 



32 

The Chairman— Is there any person present who wishes to be heard that has not 
been heard? 

Mr. Daniel J. Dugan — I would like to say a word. 

The Chairman — If anybody else wants to be heard we will be glad to hear them 
when Mr. Dugan is through. I have exhausted the entire list presented to me. Any 
others who want to be heard will be when Mr. Dugan is through. 

Daniel J. Dugan— Mr. Chairman, Mr. President and members of the Board of 
Aldermen, we have heard a great deal of the Gary system here tonight and of other 
systems and other conditions of our public schools. Our public schools have not 
been what they should be in the last 25 years and the teachers know that very well, 
and the parents know it better, for the simple reason that your great commercial 
houses in the last 10 years have turned down our graduates and proclaimed them abso- 
lutely useless to them unless they were set to work and they get up schools of their 
own in order to take them and educate them. 

Ladies and gentlemen, when I first heard of this Gary system I was very much 
in favor of it at the time because I thought that in that system that we could get 
what would eliminate the conditions we were then having, that it would be better than 
what we are now living under, but I found out that the Gary system that is introduced 
in this city and introduced under the aspirations and under the guidance of a man 
who is ruling the greatest part of this country to-day, tries to tyrannize our children 
and subsidize them in order to take them in his own hands to be supported by the 
people of this country. (Applause.) 

I further want to say, ladies and gentlemen, that the public schol teachers of 
New York City have been, as Mr. Rabbi Levy just said, some of them have been 
coming over to the Gary system. Why? Because they are whipped in line by the 
Board of Education. That is why. (Applause.) They cannot protest against it and if 
they did they would have their heads cut off. (Applause.) 

Now, we had to go to the backwoods to get a man by the name of Wirt from 
Gary, Indiana, to come in here to New York City to cut up this educational system 
to give to our children. I am interested, ladies and gentlemen, because I have got 
five. I am the father of five children and four are attending schools. I am inter- 
ested to that extent. 

I do know that if it had not been for the tyrannizing character of the Board of 
Education over the heads of the teachers we have got the greatest teachers in the 
United States to-day, and still we had to go out to Gary, Indiana, in order to get a 
backwoods man to give us a new system here. 

I believe, Mr. Chairman and members of the Board of Aldermen, that we should 
set a premium on the heads of our teachers in New York City, set up a price for 
them, let it be ten thousand dollars or fifty thousand dollars or a hundred thousand 
dollars, it would be cheap at any price, to develop a system in this city that would 
eliminate the Gary system. (Applause.) 

The Chairman — Is there anyone else who wishes to be heard? If not, we will 
go ahead with Mrs. Frost, then we will hear Mr. Taylor. 

Mrs. Frost — I would like to ask Dr. Taylor 

The Chairman — Do not ask him. Just go ahead and give further arguments if 
you have a mind to. 

Mrs. Frost — I want to put proper in my report the amount. I do not wish to mis- 
represent anything, but I asked Dr. Taylor yesterday where the one Gary school was 
that in his report he says is equipped. I have not found it. Also I have been told 
that the school cost one million dollars and I do not know how I got that mixed up, 
but I think he said it has not cost a million dollars. $750,000 is the appropriation 
for the schools, garden and equipment. I did not understand that they meant by the 
schools and gardens all the schools and gardens in the Bronx, but I would like to 
correct that on my report to have it proper. 



33 

The Chairman— Dr. Taylor, do you want to say anything further? 
Dr. Taylor— Not particularly, but I can give Mrs. Frost the figure. 
^ As I said before, the appropriation for the entire 12 schools made in 1915 was 
$757,260; in 1916, another appropriation of $695,100 was made, but that includes the 
new school at Crotona Avenue and One Hundred and Eightieth Street, which cost 
$543,474. The entire appropriation for P. S. 45 was as follows: 

In 1915, $170,000, and that includes the addition, which will have a swimming 
pool, although I am sorry my friend, Mr. Schlosser, does not like it ; a swimming pool, 
an auditorium, half a dozen shops, eight class-rooms and those advantages will be 
good under any system. 

In 1916, a further appropriation of $130,000 was made for that school to buy a 
large playground which can be used by Public School 5 and Public School 32 as well, 
and the garden, so that all told Public School 45 has received about $300,000 in addi- 
tion to its original cost, but by doing that the capacity of that school has been in- 
creased from 1,800 to about 3,500. 

In other words, the school is able to do, when it is finished, the work of two 
schools, instead of one. 

The Chairman — When will that school be finished? 

Dr. Taylor — I would say we shall be able to move into that addition next Sep- 
tember. 

Alderman McManus — Do any children attend that school on half time, any school 
under your supervision? 

Dr. Taylor — Yes, sir. I gave the number as 5,000. We do not call it half time, 
but part time. 

Alderman McManus — You say you have $700,000 available for the past two years ? 
Dr. Taylor — Yes. 

Alderman McManus — Why is it you have that money there and have not been 
using it to remedy these conditions? 

Dr. Taylor — I showed you a moment ago that we have already decreased the part 
time by eight thousand, but there are four additions to be built, and until those are 
finished we cannot duplicate these four schools which have a register of 10,000. As 
soon as those additions are finished we shall be able practically to wipe out all part 
time. The total part time in both of my districts is 5,900. 

Alderman McManus — How many schools are there in your district? 
Dr. Taylor — I have 31 schools in my district. 

Alderman Curley — Is it a fact that a large number of school children of the 
Bronx have been deprived of proper school facilities, due to the fact that contracts 
for construction of various schools within the past three - years have been given to 
irresponsible contractors? 

Dr. Taylor — I am sorry to say that is so. 
Alderman Collins — Who is at fault? 

Dr. Taylor — I cannot say that it is anybody's fault in particular, except the law 
provides the contract must be given to the lowest bidder, who is frequently irresponsi- 
ble. The man who took the contract for Evander Childs High School, which has 
been in course of construction for nearly five years, was known to be financially 
irresponsible. 

Alderman Collins — You maintain the City authorities have no discretion in the 
matter, when they know. 

Dr. Taylor — That is a State law. 
Alderman Friedlander — They must give bonds. 
Dr. Taylor — They are bonded. The contractor failed. 

Alderman Friedlander — Then it is the fault of the officials who gave out the 
contract of the school building. 



34 

Dr. Taylor— I do not want to be quoted on that, because I have nothing to do 
with that. 

Alderman Friedlander— We are here to find out the reason why these things 
are not done. 

Dr. Taylor— I shall have to admit we will have to say that while we have had 
the appropriation since July. 1915, for the addition to Public School 4 and Public 
School 32 and Public School 40, they are just now breaking ground to begin the ad- 
dition to Public School 4. They broke ground a few weeks ago at Public School 
32, and I believe they have not yet broken ground at Public School 40. Public School 
28 is to have an additional site adjacent to its present site, I think, in the coming 
appropriation. 

Alderman Friedlander— Do you know of your own knowledge of the reason for 
this delay? 

Dr. Taylor— No, I do not, because I am interested and responsible for the 
educational side of the school and could not answer the rest. 

As a point of information we only quote the children of Public School 44 and 
Public School 46. We have the Taylor report and unfortunately we did not bring 
the Taylor report because we thought we would have no chance to be heard because 
there would be so many here. We want to know what you are going to do with 
the surplus of children now until new schools are built in about three years to meet 
the numbers of people coming with the new subways. 

The exact number of apartments building — 

The Chairman — I wish you would submit that. 

That is all covered in our report. 

Alderman Collins— You looked around for temporary sites. 

STes, I did. That would enable people to have their children in temporary sites 
under the building of other schools. I found on Tremont Avenue, between No. 
6. which has 300 surplus children, and 44, there are about 10 taxpayers' buildings. 
I went there and looked at them and they said they were not taxpayers' buildings 
and were permanent, because they were fireproof and had two floors. I do not 
know about it. I went in the store and outside, and they had large windows and 
doors, and each had ventilators in the rear, which I thought a very good thing, and 
I think they could be utilized. 

1 went to the principal yesterday, and of course, he hadn't anything to say, 
but I also went to Dr. Taylor's office, but he was not there, to ask him to go and 
look at that to see if he was building, before I would submit my report to the Board 
of Education. 

Dr. Taylor— The speaker is entirely correct in saying that school 44 and school 
4:. have more children than probably could be accommodated even under the duplicate 
plan. Public School 28 is not overcrowded. 

Alderman Corley— Did I understand you correctly to state that the law provides 
that the contracts for the construction of new schools can be given to the lowest 
bidders? 

Dr. Taylor— I so understood, but I am not an authority on the subject. 

Alderman Corley— As matter of fact does not the Charter provide that by a 
three-fourths vote of the Board of Estimate and Apportionment it can use its 
discretion? 

Dr. Taylor— I do not know, because as I say, I am not an authority. I have 
nothing to do with the business end. 

Mr. Dugan— I wish to ask if you are going to take up all conditions of educa- 
tional work, that is, the construction of the buildings and the cost? 

The Chairman— Yes, everything pertaining to educational buildings in the City 
of New York. The Gary system is only an incident. 

Mr. Dugan — I am in the contracting business and I wrote a letter about a 
year and a half ago to the President of the Board of Education and I told him in 



35 

regard to cost at that time when they were putting in the Gary system because of 
economy. It has been known for years that the enormous cost going into our school 
buildings was absolutely ridiculous and there was no ground for it and that the 
Board of Education of the City of New York can hire the best architects in the 
City, any of the great architects of New York City, and you can go to them and 
they will draw plans and specifications f^or school at from 35 to 40 per cent, cheaper 
than what the Board of Education is drawing plans at today. 

Let me tell you how that is done. I told it to the Board of Education in my 
letter at the time, and this is it: The Engineer of the Board of Education goes to 
work and writes up a specification and specifies a certain material that is a patented 
material, and that has been going on for 25 years. That material is a patented article 
and is controlled by just one manufacturer. Under the City Charter a contract cannot 
be let where only one manufacturer can bid on the material, in other words, where 
it is controlled by one man. What the patentee does in that case is to go to three 
of his friends and say, I will give you the right to manufacture that material and then 
we can bid on this specification. They immediately jump the price of that material 
500 per cent, and the Board of Education has been paying that 500 per cent, on 
certain specifications, and I will bear that out, and as I did to the Board of Education 
at that time a year ago they are still paying that 500 per cent, on these articles for the 
last 25 years. 

Mr. Wolf — Anything to be said in rebuttal? 

The Chairman — If there is anything in addition to what you said we will be 
glad to hear you, but if it is simple repetition we will not. 

Mr. Wolf — It will not be repetition. 

The Chairman — What is it? 

Mr. Wolf — I wanted to say that the lady who spoke about what the Gary plan 
did to her child, that in regard to that, if she had attended the playground, the 
summer playground, she would have found that what we have in the Gary school 
today has been taught years ago in the summer playgrounds, the bench work and 
the other industrial vocation and all that, but we felt that we had it as a recrea- 
tion to those children when they did not have the other studies in the summer time. 

Then in answer to the teacher from Public School 39, I would like to say for 
the benefit of that teacher or anyone present that would be interested, or the members 
of the Board of Aldermen, that if they are interested in the conditions, and wish 
to know of local conditions in public School 39, as President of our Association, I 
invite you to come and see for yourself local conditions at a mass meeting we will 
hold at that school for the benefit of the principal, teachers and pupils and parents, 
and anything you wish to hear you will hear that night. 

You will hear how sectarian lines in that school have been drawn. 

Alderman Collins — I move we adjourn. 

(Motion carried.) 

The Chairman — We will have other meetings in the other boroughs, and next 
Thursday we will be in Borough Hall, Brooklyn. 



Brooklyn, N. Y., April 5, 1917 ; 8 P. M. 
MINUTES OF HEARING BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON GENERAL 
WELFARE OF THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN ON THE FOLLOWING 
MATTER. 

"No. 1242. Request of the conference of organized labor to the Board to hold 
hearings and to invite the Board of Education and city officials to answer why 
the demands for better educational facilities have not been respected." 
Present — Alderman Robitzek, Chairman, Friedlander, Burns, Dixson, Bassett, 
Eagan, Ferguson, Collins, Haubert, Carroll, Members of Committee. 

The Chairman — This is a public hearing by the Committee on General Welfare 
of the Board of Aldermen of the City of New York to consider a petition which was 



36 

presented by the Conference of Organized Labor. These meetings are being held 
in the several boroughs and several districts of the City of New York, in order 
that the petitioners may have an opportunity of being heard and in order that the 
general public and all those interested in the question of educational facilities in the 
City of New York may be heard by the Committee of the Board of Aldermen so 
that that committee may intelligently report* to the Board their findings at the con- 
clusion of these hearings. 

I understand there are several speakers. The stenographer has called my atten- 
tion to several who are desirous of speaking. We will limit the speakers to ten 
minutes. I will take them up in the order they appear here, and the order in which 
they appear here is the way in which the stenographer presented them to me. 

I find the first name — well, Mr. Brady, as the petitioner, I wish you would briefly 
outline the object of your position as you did at the other meetings already held. 
That will give those present some idea of what your petition calls for. 

Mr. P. J. Brady — The reason we have appealed to the Board of Aldermen to look 
into school conditions is because we have in mind: First, the conditions that prevail, 
or, at least, the methods of industrial and vocational instruction existing in the public 
school to-day, and we appreciate the importance and necessity of getting a much more 
definite and better programme for industrial education in the schools. 

Second, that we may get one that may be more practical than the system that 
they have at present. 

The reason that we have taken this position is that two years ago the trade 
unionists in the City looked into the industrial education system of the Board of 
Education because at that time it was announced they were going to teach every boy 
and girl a trade. As the result of that we wanted to find out just how they were 
going to do the teaching, and we made our own investigation, that is the representa- 
tives of the various courses in which they were giving industrial training visited the 
particular schools : Such as the machinists went to the machine courses, the car- 
penter to the wood-working courses, the electrician to the electric courses, the printer 
visited the printing courses, and they reported back to our Conference and the report 
was far from satisfactory. 

We found that the Board of Education itself might not have been entirely to 
blame, but we found they did not consult with the people in industry, that is, they 
did not consult with the unions, who know what is required of apprentices in order 
to prepare them for meeting the actual conditions in industrial and commercial life. 
We found that they did not consult with the employers, and the result was that boys 
and girls are getting a training in industrial subjects which it is very doubtful will 
be of any use to them after they graduate from school; and the question comes up 
in our mind, from past experience, as to whether all of the knowledge which they 
have accumulated in the schools will not first have to be forgotten by the pupils before 
they can actually start in to be taught a trade whenever they have to secure a job. 

So, in order to make that practical, to make it of real worth to the children in 
the schools, we asked the Board of Education to co-operate with us. Not being 
successful in that, we found the next thing necessary for us to do in order to bring 
about the reformation that we desired was to appeal to the Board of Aldermen them- 
selves, who are partially responsible for education of the children attending the 
schools, to the people of* New York, to look into this matter to make their own per- 
sonal investigation to take up the questions which we have raised and find out whether 
those statements are true or not. If they are not true, the Board of Education is 
entitled to a vindication. If they are true it will be up to the Aldermanic Committee 
to make the necessary recommendations to the Board of Education, to establish a 
system of industrial and vocational training in the City that will meet with the 
approval of not only the membership of our unions but of employers generally. 



37 

Criticism is being passed around very vigorously today in almost all parts of the 
City, and particularly by employers, that boys and girls who graduate from the schools 
are not fully equipped to take up their duties in commercial and industrial life. 

There seems to be some reason for that, and it is to find out what that parti- 
cular reason is that we ask the Board of Aldermen to step in, to look into the question 
and arrive at their own conclusions and make their own recommendations, because 
we feel sure if they go deep enough into this question, if they go to' these schools 
and observe the operation of vocational and industrial training programme there, that 
they will make recommendations which will meet with our approval. 

We have asked the Aldermanic Committee, in order to get in direct touch with 
the people in New York in schools, having children attending the schools, if they 
would not be kind enough to hold these hearings in various parts of the City so that 
everybody directly interested in the subject will have an opportunity of appearing 
before the Committee and being heard. We asked them to go to The Bronx, so the 
people in The Bronx would not have to come down to the City Hall in the day time, 
when women can ill-afford to be away from the children if the men are working in 
the day time and cannot come to the hearings. We asked them to hold this hearing 
in the evening so the parents would have an opportunity to be there with as little 
inconvenience as possible. 

This is the second meeting that is being held. The first meeting was held last 
Thursday in The Bronx. This second meeting is being held in Brooklyn to-night and 
a third meeting, I understand, will be held in Astoria Public School No. 6, and the 
other three meetings in a location to be decided upon by the Aldermen themselves. 

As a result of the petition which we have filed and as a 'result of the suggestions 
that will be given by the parents of children themselves by these various meetings. 
I feel the Board of Aldermen will have a good basis to work upon to make the 
recommendation for the general improvement of our public schools in this City. 

The Chairman — The Committee will first hear from Mrs. Alice E. R. Ritter, from 
Public School No. 89, Brooklyn. 

Mrs. Alice E. R. Ritter — I came here to-night because I knew that organized labor 
had called for these meetings, and I was particularly interested in finding the attitude 
which I found the representatives of organized labor had toward our schools a year 
ago- The gentleman who just spoke talked with me a little over a year ago and told 
me that he objected to the vocational training that was being carried on in the Gary 

schools. He approved personally of what was being carried on in the 

because the school people had consulted with labor about the vocational 

training in those schools, but the Gary schools had ignored organized 

labor, and I had a great deal of pleasure in explaining to Mr. Brady that we had 
nothing that you could call industrial training in our Gary schools. 

I do believe that we ought to have greater facilities for carrying on the elements 
of industrial training, but in the light that Mr. Brady has been regarding it it seems 
to me that our interest in vocational training is not in order to prepare boys primarily 
for a trade, but in order that they may so be able to train their hands and brains that 
they will be more efficient in any line of work which they may take up later. Many 
children are educated through the hands of more than they are through the mere 
textbook. 

It is for that particular aspect of the vocation education of children that I am 
here to plead for, that we be given more opportunity vocationally to train our 
children along broad lines, not along the narrow, special trade lines that the organized 
trade people are particularly interested in. I believe the Gary school is the road 
through which that can best be accomplished, and for that reason I am here to plead 
that we have a greater extension of the Gary school than is already permitted. 

The Gary school has been turning out specially fitted pupils for life in the last 



38 

four years. I can personally vouch for that because I have followed the career of 
a number of my children who have gone out to business and have taken good 
positions and are making good in them. I have also followed the career of high 
school pupils who went out in the last two years, and I am proud to say that 98 per 
cent, of them make good and are promoted. That is a much higher ratio than 
shown by most schools and high schools. For two years and a half we have had 
that work in our school. District Superintendent Campbell after an all-day examina- 
tion turned to me and said. " That is the best work I have ever seen in your school." 
I have been in that school for seven years and it does not look as though the Gary 
system was a failure in purely mental studies, which were all that Mr. Campbell 
examined. 

I think the effect is very good on children upon the socializing question, and 
goodness knows, American children need socializing. We need to get rid of the 
individual point of view and be able to see the larger point of view of all the systems 
of our big city. 

The children have improved in health. Truancy has almost become a thing of 
the past. The manual activities have certainly been stimulated, and altogether there 
is a home-like influence of and sociability in the discipline that makes the children 
love school. They love the opportunities to move around. It takes away the strain, 
and I believe that we are making our work much more practical when we are allowed 
to have the specially fitted up room for all the different vocations. The teachers 
also improve in health and they improve in teaching, because they are allowed to 
teach the particular thing that they love. Naturally one can do the best when one 
is able to do the thing one loves best and knows most about. 

It is for all of these reasons that I believe there should be a greater extension of 
thi ' iary system. 

The Chairman — It is desired by the Brooklyn Central Labor Union, a Special 
Committee of which consists of Otto Nicols, James P. Boyle and Frank S. Tomlin, 
that they be permitted to present their views in writing. 

Mr. Nicols — Yes. 

The Chairman — You simply want to present your views in writing? 

Mr. Nicols — Yes. 

The Chairman — The Committee will have no objection to that. You will submit 
them within the next week? 

Mr. Nicols — Very soon. 

The Chairman — Mr. Louis H. Pink, Chairman of the Educational Committee of 
the Brooklyn Civic Club. 

Mr. Pink — Mr. Chairman — 

Mrs. Anna M. McKcnzie — Mr. Chairman, I would like to present this report 
as President of the Parents' Association of Public School 89. 

I just want to state out of 490 of the anti-Garyites to have this signed there was 
only 25 of the parents that signed for the old system to go back. The majority of 
all the parents out there like the Gary system the best. 

I present this petition as President of the Parents' Association of Public School 89. 

The Chairman — Your petition will be recorded with the minutes and be con- 
sidered by the Committee. 

Mr. Louis H. Pink — I desire to submit this report. 

The Chairman — You desire to submit this and say something. What is this, 
a brief? 

Mr. Pink — It is a memorandum of study. 

The Chairman — Submitted by the Brooklyn Civic Club, a Bulletin of Brooklyn 
Public Schools, Educational Number, January, 1917. 

Mr. Pink — The Committee on Education of the Brooklyn Civic Club, which made 
a study of school conditions in Brooklyn, and we felt since we did this work we 



39 

ought to come here and either shed light or cast a shadow. I talked with a gentle- 
man in the hall this evening and he said the main trouble with the public schools 
of the City of New York was lack of money, and I think that essentially that 
is true. 

The crying evils in the school situation, especially here in Brooklyn, is in recent 
years large classes. Those classes have been from 45 to 50 and 50 up. Of course 
the ideal class is 30 to 35 and 40 at most. We cannot hope to have the ideal con- 
dition for sometime to come, but we should strive to eliminate classes of 45 to 50 
and 50 upwards. 

In 1913 in Manhattan there were 1,443 classes of from 45 to 50, and 1,490 in 
Brooklyn. There were 793 classes over 50 in Manhattan and 932 in Brooklyn. 

In 1914 it was practically the same. 

In 1915 Manhattan had only 713 classes over 50, and Brooklyn had 1,158. 

The Chairman — Have you additional copies of this? 

Mr. Pink— Only what I left there. 

In 1916 there was a considerable improvement, because there wree 1,553 classes 
between 45 and 50 in Manhattan, and 1,682 in Brooklyn ; there were 642 over 50 in 
Manhattan and 791 in Brooklyn. 

While there has been some improvement it seems to us that is the thing to 
hammer at, these classes that are an absolute disgrace and ought to be absolutely 
eliminated. 

The matter of part time is also a serious evil that has been considerably decreased, 
especially in Brooklyn, in the last few years 

The main fault is in the selection of new buildings for Brooklyn. We made a 
study and despite the fact that this city has increased rapidly in population, there has 
been a systematical and gradual falling off in the number of new buildings provided 
in the last few years. 

If you take, first, the money appropriated for new buildings and take it, not by 
years, because that is unfair, for sometimes you spend two or three million dollars 
a year and the next year you spend eight million dollars, but taking it by three year 
periods, which is perhaps the fairest way to contract it, during the last three 
years the city has appropriated by $5,266,000 for new buildings. During the three 
years previous to that it appropriated the sum of $18,600,000, and still going back 
another three years it appropriated $15,000,600, and going back still another period of 
three years we have $31,500,000. That is going back a dozen years we have the city 
spending in a three year period six times as much money for public schools as in 
the last three years. The number of new buildings completed by years bears out 
this same situation. 

We have buildings completed in the last three years, 1914 to 1916, but 10. The 
three years prior to that, 1911 to 1913, going back another three years, 27; and still 
another three years, 35. In other words, instead of having more school buildings 
every year we are having less every year, despite the great increase in population. 

Taking this same problem up, the number of new buildings and additions for 
w'hich contracts were let, we have in the last three years 13. In the three years 
before that we have 13, and in the three year period before that, 13, a total of 39 for 
three three-year periods. Going back to the fourth three-year period we have 39, 
compared with 13 at the present time. 

I notice that the Committee are particularly interested in the question of Gary 
schools. 

The Chairman — No, that is a fallacy. The discussion in The Bronx was oh 
the question of Gary or anti-Gary schools. That is because some of the speakers 
took that up, but we are particularly interested. We are open minded on that ques- 
tion. We will be glad to hear the subject discussed. It gives us an opportunity to 
dwell upon it in future, but we are not taking up that particular subject, and I would 



40 

just as leave it be understood now, because we are taking up in a broad way the study 
of educational facilities of the City of New York. 

The petition contends the facilities are not adequate and incidentally it mentions 
the Gary system, but that is not the paramount subject, although members of the 
Gary League or Anti-Gary League or the Duplicate System are here, but that is 
only an incident. The main subject is the educational facilities. Are they sufficient 
for the City of New York? That is the chief subject. This other is only an incident. 
The Gary contenders, I take it, maintain the Gary system is a substitute for addi- 
tional school buildings. They justify it in that way; and those in opposition take 
the position that the Gary system is not a substitute for additional schools, but it is 
only an incident and we might as well have ourselves understood. 

Mr. Pink — Shall I omit that feature then? 

The Chairman — No, go right ahead. 

Alderman Friedlander — You may suggest such activities as you think proper. 

Mr. Pink — We have something we would like to say about the Gary system. 

Alderman Friedlander — Then just say what you want to. We want to hear all the 
good parts of it and all the failures, or such remedies as you might suggest. 

The Chairman — I did not mean to take up any of your time, and I will allow you 
additional time for any time on which we intrude, but I just want to be understood 
on that subject. 

Mr. Pink — We believe there is a great deal of merit in the Gary idea. Of course, 
the ideal education has always been what Mr. Wirt is trying to work out, to work out 
of Gary. That is a broader education — manual training, art, science, libraries, and 
all that sort of thing. That is a fine ideal, and as far as you work from that we 
agree with it. 

We think the Gary system has sufficient good in it to warrant a thorough trial 
under the most favorable conditions, but we do not favor radically and immediately 
changing he entire school system at one fell swoop without trying out the system 
in a limited number of schools under favorable conditions. We think the city is going 
too fast, and we think the city is not doing it thoroughly enough. In other words, 
instead of taking 20 or 30 or 40 schools and doing the job right, they are trying to 
Garyize a great number of schools and are doing the job wrong. They are not spend- 
ing enough money, and have not enough physical appliances, and we think that is the 
great problem in the city at this time with the Gary system. 

In the report we will tile there is contrasted public school No. 45 in the Bronx, 
which was the first system Garyized in New York, with the other schools Garyized 
in Brooklyn, and we find in Public School No. 45 in the Bronx there is a great falling 
off in the facilities there as compared to Gary; and we find Public School 89 in Brook- 
lyn, their second Gary school, that there is another falling off, though not so noticeable 
between Public School 45 and Public School 89, and between the two schools, each of 
which is a model, and the other miscellaneous, heterogeneous lot of schools you will 
find a deep drop compared to the first two more or less model schools, Public School 
45 and Public School 89. We think the job should be done right in a limited number 
of schools before trying it out in all the schools. 

In the matter of industrial training, which I think you are particularly interested 
in. we favor very decidedly that, and the compulsory continuation training schools. 

We find in Munich, Germany, and in many of the localities in England, the com- 
pulsory continuation schools come near to solving the problem for the boy and girl 
of fifteen to eighteen years of age as near as anything can come. The only trouble 
with the continuation schools in America is we are not taking it up seriously. It is 
not compulsory. They have continuation classes in Brooklyn. There are 183 continu- 
ation classes in Brooklyn and 711 in Manhattan. 

Alderman Collins — What is a continuation class? 

Mr. Pink — A continuation class is this : In New York, a certain dry goods store, 



41 

for instance ; there we have some salesgirls who are not educated, who leave school 
at perhaps fifteen to eighteen years of age, and they want them to get a broader 
education and also to know things relating to the dry goods business. They start 
classes in dry goods, and teachers are sent from the Board of Education to instruct 
these girls to be better fitted for that line. That is really in the experimental stage 
so far, and very few are in it, but it has not gone to a very great extent, but in the 
United States the continuation schools come nearer to solving the problem of boys 
leaving school at fifteen to eighteen years of age and having to work to support 
their families than anything else I know of. 

But we do not do anything but turn them loose at the most critical period of their 
lives, at the adolescent period, and we believe it will be taking a step forward to take 
these young men and women and not only to liberally educate them but to also learn 
them a trade, a business, a vocation. 

As Mr. Brady said, the Allied Labor Unions and employers ought to have a hand 
with the Board of Education in shaping those courses so they may be practical, and 
of saying to students in actual life. 

And in a time of preparation, and we believe we are in that time of preparation, 
and that is the highest preparation and the greatest preparation for life : A nation 
of trained men and women, and if this committee can stimulate continuation training 
between the school periods for boys and girls in the period of adolescence, it will 
do a great good. 

The Chairman — Your memorandum will be filed with the committee. If you have 
additional copies or can secure them I would appreciate it because I wish to send 
them to other members of the committee. 

There is a communication, which will be filed, from Mrs. Ritter, of the Depart- 
ment of Education. 

Also a committee from the Board of Education, represented by Mr. Oswald 
Schlockow, who is a member, and who desires to be heard. 

Mr. Oswald Schlockow — Mr. Chairman, I thought that at a hearing of this nature 
it might be interesting to know that a rumor, which has been extant in this town, 
or borough, that Brooklyn has not been perhaps sufficiently recognized in the allotment 
of school funds, is not altogether justified, and I took it upon myself to clloect certain 
information upon the subject, and if you will have patience enough I should trespass 
upon your time for a few moments to mention that fact. 

• In the year 1916 the Board of Education had at its disposal $6,000,000 for building 
alterations. Of this sum three and a half million dollars were appropriated for the 
Brooklyn schools. I believe that indicates that there is no desire to pass over this 
borough. In addition to that three and a half million dollars referred to, over two 
million -dollars were used for purposes of constructing four new school buildings, 
which would also indicate that -the Department is not altogether adverse to the erec- 
tion of new buildings when they are needed. The money that was expended was used 
for the purpose of revolutionizing educational practice in this borough and New York 
City. 

The things that the Department did, among other things, was to add to the 
educational facilities of our schools. Where formerly we had, among the special 
activities — of Course, the ten minutes allotted to me is insufficient to explpain the 
philosophy of education, and consequently I will have to limit myself to the fair out- 
line of facts — where formerly we had, among our special projects, gymnasiums, 
elementary wood-working shops, a few kitchens, a few science rooms, we today have 
in the same schools, or rather in fourteen schools which we expect to open before the 
last day of June, 1917, the current year, we now have drawing rooms, music rooms, 
library and study rooms, plumbing shops, electric wire rooms, additional science 
rooms, printing shops, sewing and dressmaking rooms, millinery rooms, commercial 
rooms and sheet metal shops. 



42 

These figures in themselves are not significant unless we can properly interpret 
them, and the interpretation is this : That the traditional school is doomed. The 
traditional school is a school in which, the child was compelled to adjust itself to the 
condition he found in the school, and the result was that a great many children, 
thousands of them, became so-called educational misfits. They did not fit into the 
scheme of things, and in consequence of the inability they possessed to adjust them- 
selves to the schools they were simply lost. They left school. They became dis- 
gruntled, some of them even became law-defying, and they were lost to the schools 
and society. 

A new ideal has become prevalent, an ideal which is bound to continue. You 
nor I have any control over that, because it is written in the stars, that the schools 
will have to adjust themselves to the child. We shall have to have just as many 
schools as there are types of children. If necessary, speaking figuratively, I hold that 
we shall have to have a school for one particular child, if such child exists, unique 
and different from all other children, but the schools must come to the child. The 
child will not be compelled to adjust itself to the school, and that is why we have 
this variety of shops and special rooms. We shall have as many of these rooms as 
we have different types of children, and it goes without saying that these rooms are 
not found in every school. They are found where they are needed. 

This particular type of work marks a tremendous step in advance, marks a change 
which means not only better schools, but, I am sure, more efficient and healthier chil- 
dren, and more efficient and better systems of this country. It may interest you to 
know thai today the country is calling for men who are not necessarily skilled in book 
lore, but more who are able to accomplish things. They are men who can do things, and 

[overntnent is today listing and classifying the population according to the things 
which the individual can do. 

The Duplicate School System is giving our children a chance to express them- 
selves; not only to think, not only to write books, not only to be passively studious, 
but to do the things which nature has enabled some to do, but which in the past the 
traditional school has not given the child the opportunity to do. 

Therefore, please consider this a revolutionary experiment. We do not claim 
perfection for it at this time. We do not expect that educational progress will ter- 
minate within the year 1917, but wc do believe that we are on the right track. We 
do believe that the money which now is being expended for the extension of these 
new additional facilities is money which is bound to bear the most wonderful truit 
in the future. We are sure that this money and these facilities for our children shall 
make them more efficient, more self-reliant, more law-abiding, far more worthy to 
be called true American citizens than the generation which have passed through our 
schools in the past (applause). 

The Chairman — Mr. Dennis A. Spellissy, representing the Committee on Education 
of the United Irish-American Societies. 

Mr. Dennis A. Spellissy — I came here rather to listen than speak. My name, in- 
advertently, was put on the list of speakers. However, being very much enlightened 
by some things I have heard I wish to say the remarks of the last gentleman and 
Mr. Peter J. Brady have impressed me. 

Vbout two years ago the question of vocational education was broached in our 
societies, and our societies took a special interest in that, because being represented 
from all the five boroughs, the delegates, very many of whom are workingmen, it 
was a matter of importance that their children should be placed in a position in 
which they would be able to take a citizen's part in the neighborhood and do well 
for themselves and the family they might bring up. 

The thing went on for some time, and many of us, many of our delegates, en- 
deavored to take advantage of it, but it was a woeful failure. From one thing or 
another, it did not seem to come to any practical result. What the cause of that was 



43 

I will not go into, because I haven't the time and have not as much information as 
the ladies and gentlemen here present. 

I would like to allude to one thing here. About twelve months ago it was 
proposed to get up classes for Gaelic. The thing went on for some time, very 
smoothly and sweetly in fact, and we had the classes all prepared with little expense 
to the City. We had teachers and assistant teachers and pupils in our vicinity for 
holding that school, which suddenly collapsed, because the City did not have enough 
money. They were very zealous in placing the matter before the Board and the 
public and succeeded in getting a good deal of enthusiasm aroused, and the subject 
collapsed from the simple and ridiculous reason that they could not pay three or 
four hundred dollars a year into it to pay the teacher. 

All I have to say, then, is just from what I know to confirm all that has been 
said by those here. 

I think vocational training is of the utmost importance and should not be a mere 
matter of theory, but it should be a broad training for the children so that after 
leeaving school they are ready to go into some industrial course and provide for 
themselves and their families. That is especially so with Germany and I do not see 
why we should not manage it ourselves to the same extent. We pay an enormous 
amount of money that goes into education in this City, particularly, and we want it 
used to the best advantage. 

As I said to the gentlemen, I only speak generally on the matter. I came here 
with no especial object in my mind, that the failure of the vocational school has been 
its failure to help men that I represent in the organization. 

The Chairman — Mr. Miller, Chairman of Local School Board No. 39, Brooklyn. 

Mr. Miller — Gentlemen, I would like to inquire whether or not this committee 
has decided to have a hearing in the Brownsville and East New York section, as we 
have requested? 

Aldermen Ferguson — I have conferred with the Chairman of the Committee 
and we will make arrangments about that. 

The Chairman — Have you a suggestion as to the most available site for that 
hearing? 

Mr. Miller — Public School 84, I think, would be the most central point. 

The Chairman — What is the location of that? 

Mr. Miller — Glenmore and Stone Avenues. 

Mr. Ferguson — Would you suggest two weeks from to-night? 

Mr. Miller — Yes ; that would be agreeable. 

The Chairman — We wanted to hold one in Manhattan first. The next meeting 
will be in Queens. There is this one here, and the last meeting was held in The 
Bronx. -It is only fair that one be held in Manhattan. Suppose we make it three 
weeks from to-night and hold one in between, in Manhattan, two weeks from to- 
night ? 

Mr. Miller— Yes. 

The Chairman — Then make it definitely three weeks from to-night, April 26- 

Mr. Miller — I will reserve, therefore, any remarks I wish to make in reference 
to the high school and other matters as to the hearing which you will hold there, but 
I will speak of one matter here to-night which I believe affects more people than 
are even within the boundary of East New York and Brownsville, a matter not yet 
mentioned by anybody and which has come to my attention as Chairman of the School 
Board on a great many occasions, and while it does not affect the children of the 
schools, it affects the prospective teachers of the schools and the parents of such 
prospective teachers. 

I refer to candidates for teachers, that is, students in training schools and those 
who have graduated from training schools. 



44 

As the rules exist now, there have been so many girls that have taken up the 
profession of teacher that the examinations have become rather rigid. I do not in- 
tend — in fact, I know that the examiners are fair, they are quite strict now and I 
believe they know what they are doing, but the result is this, that a great many young 
girls and young women of parents of very limited financial circumstances are turned 
out from the training schools and in the examination room only to find that they are 
flunked in the oral examinations. There are two kinds of examinations held, written 
examinations and oral examinations. The written examinations, of course, are 
matters of record. The oral examination is what the examiner thinks about the 
enunciation or pronunciation or accent and appearance of the candidate, and a 
great many in the last few years, it has come to me, have been — parents have come to 
me and complained, and also the candidates, that they have been flunked in oral 
examinations. 

That means they get one more chance and if they flunk in the next examination 
it means they have to leave that profession and look for some other means of sup- 
port. In fact, I know of girls of very poor parents that have had to go out after they 
had graduated from the training schools and look for other jobs; start all over again. 
I believe that this is entirely wrong, that these parents and girls and boys can be 
spared this heartfelt sorrow and this unnecessary expense and ill-afforded expense 
by some simple rules that I take the liberty to suggest and will ask you to consider 
and to look into the matter, 'and in turn suggest to the Board of Education, and that 
is this : 

I think that if a girl or a young man goes out of high school that that boy or girl 
should not be permitted to enter training school until that boy or girl, or the can- 
didate, has passed an oral examination before the Board of Examiners of the Board 
of Education. (Applause.) 

That is exactly the sentiment I feel exists, only that nobody has ever got out 
before and talked about it, for these poor boys and parents, that are led to believe 
(heir children will make good teachers and they wait for four years to spend their 
last dollar, going out washing and scrubbing floors, and then finding out that these 
girls have got to go and look for a job in a dry goods store. 

That can be eliminated in a simple manner. Let this girl go and be compelled 
to take an oral examination before she enters training school. If the girl passes 
the oral examination, or the boy, let her not be required to pass another oral ex- 
amination. Then she is relieved from any other further oral examination. Then let 
it be written. If she fails, it should be divided into two groups: Group 1, hopeful 
cases, those cases where there are defects of speech and the examiner thinks they 
are hopeful. That is. those that the examiner thinks can be corrected in two years. 
Let them into the training school, but with the distinct understanding that they must 
take the oral examination before they will bet a license. Then you see the parents 
go in with their eyes open and take a chance, and let all the defects be pointed out 
to the principal and the pupils and let them enter the special training school to be 
trained in their defects of speech, and then I am sure most of them will pass the 
oral examination. 

And then, Group 2, those who do not come up to the standard of the oral ex- 
amination at the time they apply for entrance to the training school. Let them be 
turned away and no harm has been done, because that girl is in the position of being 
young in years and the expense has been spared to the parents and that girl can go 
out and look for some other means of support. 

I hope you will call this to the particular attention of the Board of Education, 
because it exists in many, many cases, and the public does not know of it. (Ap- 
plause.) 

I thank you very much. 



45 

The Chairman — Then we will be in the Brownsville section three weeks from 
to-night, Public School 84. 

Mr. Miller— The 26th. 

The Chairman — You will make the necessary arrangements in that school, will 
youV 

Mr. Miller— Yes, sir. 

The Chairman — And communicate with me in the next few days? 

Mr. Miller — Yes, sir. That is, the application for the use of the auditorium, and 
so forth? 

The Chairman — Yes, sir. Let me know in the next few days, because I must 
publish it in the City Record. 

Mr. Miller — Yes, sir, I will do that, Mr. Chairman. 

The Chairman — We will next hear from Mrs Blanche M. Doyle, representing 
the teachers of Public School 65, Brooklyn. 

Mrs. Blanche M. Doyle — I do not care to speak until after another lady from 
Public School 65, who is here and who wanted to speak. 

The Chairman — What is her nam;? 

Mrs. Doyle — Mrs. Miller. I would rather wait. 

The Chairman — Mrs. Miller, representing Public School 65. 

Mrs. Miller — There are so few of us up here to-night, can't we submit our com- 
plaint in writing? 

The Chairman — Have you it there; 

Mrs. Miller — No, I have not. 

The Chairman — Will you submit it within a week? 

Mrs. Miller — Yes. 

The Chairman — Will you speak now, Mrs. Doyle: 

Mrs. Doyle — No, I thought there might be a few things said that I could answer. 

The Chairman — Mrs. Acker, from the same school. 

Mrs. Acker — I have nothing to say, only that I have gone to different homes in 
our section, that is Public School No. 65, and within eight hours I have visited 50 
homes. 

The Chairman — Where is the school? 

Mrs. Acker — On Richmond Street, between Fulton Street and Ridgewood Ave- 
nue, and this is in favor of Miss Duncan, principal of Public School 65. She knows 
nothing of my stand. She knew nothing of my going to these homes to inquire 
of these mothers what they thought of her, and each and every mother has told me 
they were in favor of her methods. 

The Chairman — Is that school on the Gary plan? 

Alderman Collins — I do not. know of any complaint against Miss Duncan being 
before us, and we understand she is one of the best principals in Brooklyn. (Ap- 
plause). 

Mrs. Acker — Of course, some people, Mrs. Miller and other mothers, find some 
fault with Miss Duncan. 

The Chairman — We are not investigating any complaint against any particular 
principal. We are investigating the entire educational facilities of The City of New 
York. 

Mrs. Acker — Well, since Mrs. Miller is here 

The Chairman — She wanted to submit in writing what she had to submit. 

Mrs. Acker — Her complaint. Will I do the same? 

The Chairman — Yes, within a week. 

Alderman Collins — If any of the teachers of your school want to reply to any- 
thing put in writing by Mrs. Miller, you will be given an opportunity. 

The Chairman — Mrs. Miller, will you kindly not go into personal matters in this 
matter? If you have got a matter that pertains to the entire educational facilities of 
the school, all right. 



46 

Mrs. Miller — I refer to the religious question that has been brought in very 
forcibly in Public School 65. 

The Chairman — Will you submit it in writing? 

Mrs. Miller — Yes. 

The Chairman — And send a copy to this lady and she will have to send a copy 
of her communication to you. 

Mrs. Acker — No, I will not. 

Mrs. Miller — That is like putting a complaint in the enemy's hands. 

The Chairman — We are not going to consider any religious question, and we 
are not going to consider any complaint against any one single individual principal. 
That is not the question. We have a tremendously large field to cover, and if there 
is a complaint against one principal, if there is a religious question against one prin- 
cipal, the proper place to go with that is the Board of Education. 

Mrs. Miller — I have been to the Board of Education. 

Alderman Collins — Has the Board of Education disposed of this matter? 

Mrs. Miller — In this way 

Alderman Collins — In what way? 

Mrs. Miller — They have turned it off and I have been there and been trying 
many, many times. 

Alderman Collins — You made a complaint to the Board of Education about some 
particular feature? 

Mrs. Miller — One particular principal. 

Mderman Collins — And then having made that complaint against one particular 
principal, was it decided? 

Mrs. Miller — A one-sided investigation was made, only there in the school and 
no outside affair, and with regard to Mrs. Duncan being the best principal in the 
public schools, I want to say this 

\lderman Collins — I have just given the opinion that we have heard. 

Mrs. Miller — I do not agree with you. 

Mrs. Wolfe — Is Public School 65 a Gary School? Then if Public School 65 is 
a Gary school, then that lady wants to say that since Gary has been introduced into 
that school 

The Chairman — Please do not go into personalities and religious questions. We 
have got a lot of meetings to cover, and we want to cover them in an orderly manner, 
and if we open up these meetings for a public discussion on personal quarrels, I 
do not think we will get very far. You will have to just confine yourself to the 
general situation. 

Mrs. Milk-r — I do not think 10 minutes will do our case, and if you like, I will 
submit it in writing. 

The Chairman — We have no jurisdiction. If you find that you the dissatisfied 
with any action on the part of the principal, your remedy is not with this Com- 
mittee, but with the Board of Education. 

Mrs. Miller — But you get no satisfaction from the Board of Education, and what 
are parents in the public schools going to do and where are they going to go to 
get satisfaction? 

Alderman Collins — Does your child attend that school? 

Mrs. Miller — Yes, one child, and I have been told — I went to this schoon on 
one particular occasion for favors, and my child has been an honored scholar in 
that school for 26 months, and so, therefore, the teachers and these people that 
are coming forward know nothing of what went on between this Duncan and I. 
She came forward and expressed herself very forcibly in a daily paper the very next 
day after I visited the No. 65 School, and if the Chairman will allow me to place 

those 50 complaints I have before the Committee 

The Chairman — Submit it, will you? 



47 

Mrs. Miller — Submit them to you? 

The Chairman — If you have any to submit, you may submit them, Mrs. Acker. 

Mrs. Miller — I do not think I ought to submit a complaint to the enemy's hands. 

The Chairman — Yes ; and, if you have anything to submit 

Mrs. Acker — Mine are in favor of the principal. I have also a child in 65, which 
has done wonderful work and given credit to the management and methods of the 
principal, as well as the teachers. 

The Chairman — Submit it, and any other petitioners who want to join in that. 
Submit it within a week. 

Mrs. Miller— Where will I submit this? City Hall, New York? 

Alderman Collins — All I desire to know and to have done is, if any complaints 
are made, that opportunity be given to the teacher against whom the complaint is 
made to meet the complaint. 

Mrs. Miller — I would like to show how the Board of Education acted. 

Alderman Collins — Our attitude ought to be a fair one. If a complaint is made, 
we ought to let the party against whom the complaint is made know of the complaint. 

The Chairman — You understand that we have no jurisdiction over the complaint, 
whether this teacher is justified in doing a particular thing. That is not what we 
are investigating. That is not what we are holding these meetings for. Please do 
not go into a complaint of any particular principal, because you are wasting your 
time in that matter. We haven't any jurisdiction. The jurisdiction is entirely in 
the Board of Education. 

Mrs. Miller — If the Board of Education does not act, where are you to go? 

Alderman Collins — We have no jurisdiction over some particular principal. 

Alderman Friedlander — We are not hearing any complaint of any one person 
as against any teacher or principal. 

Mrs. Miller — What about SO? If we have a complaint against one principal 
and we can't get a hearing from the Board of Education, I think you ought to get 
a hearing here. 

The Chairman — Suppose we find what you say is true — ■ I do not know what 
the complaint is— 

Mrs. Miller — It is very true. 

Chairman — Suppose we find it is. What are we going to do? We can't do any 
more than you do. That is not what we are investigating. That is not what we are 
trying to remedy. That is an individual case. Even if we were to come to the con- 
clusion that you were right in your contention, then what are we to do? We are 
not going to open up any trial had in the Board of Education. We are not going 
to recommend to the Board of Education that they dismiss this individual teacher. 
That is not what we are out to do. We are out to investigate the school facilities 
generally. 

Alderman Collins — We are not a trial body. We are not sitting here to see 
whether some particular principal acted wrong. We are here to listen to complaints 
against the conditions. If we listen to remarks against the public school teachers 
of this city, individually, I do not think that we could finish, because in every school 
there are some complaints about one particular teacher. Some think she is very 
good and some others think she is not so good. This is not against any particular 
principal. 

Mrs. Miller— Then, why submit the report to you? 

Alderman Why not let the lady submit her brief? 

The Chairman— I want you to understand this. The Committee are perfectly 
willing to let you submit anything of any kind, but they will not consider a per- 
sonal complaint against a single individual principal. 

Mrs. Miller— Not even if there are fifty cases of that kind? 

The Chairman— It is only against one principal. It is not against the entire 



48 

school system. That is what we are investigating. The other speakers who pre- 
ceded you Some consider the school facilities adequate and others consider 

them inadequate, but they were naming conditions generally and not against any par- 
ticular principal. You have only a grievance against one particular principal. 

Alderman Have you anything against the operation of that school by 

that principal? 

Mrs. Miller — I certainly have. 

Alderman Submit that. 

Alderman Collins— A complaint was made to the Board of Education by you 
against one particular principal. 

Mrs. Miller — Yes. 

Alderman Collins — That complaint was disposed of by the Board of Education. 

Mrs. Miller — No; it was not. 

Alderman Collins— Did they say she acted wrongfully and changed her to some 
other school? 

Mrs. Miller — I would like to submit a copy of what she did. 

Alderman Collins — What was the report? 

Mrs. Miller — If I submit a copy of what they did, why, then, you could judge 
for yourself whether the Board of Education ought to have some investigation for 
the parents. 

Alderman Haubert — Let us take it up in Executive Session and get in touch 
with these people. 

Uderman — The lady says she has something against the operation of 

the school. Why not let her submit that? (Applause.) 

Mrs. Miller — 1 will submit my complaint. 

The Chairman — Mrs. Acker, you submit anything you want to submit. 

Mrs. Acker — In the favor of the principal and the management? 

The Giairman — Not in regard to the principal. We do not care about the prin- 
cipal. 

Mrs. Acker — In her management of her school? 

The Chairman — In regard to the school. If you find that public school is every- 
thing you believe it ought to be, submit that in writing. 

Mrs. Acker — And the other signatures that I have? 

The Chairman — Yes; but we will not consider anything that this lady will bring 
in regard to a certain individual principal. We will not consider that. If it is in 
her communication, we won't consider that feature of it. 

I eo W Saundry of Public School 12. 

Mr. Leo W. Saundry — Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the Committee. I am 
president of the Parents* Association and Neighbors' Association of Public School 12. 

The Chairman — Where is that situated? 

Mr. Saundry — It is situated on Adelphi Street, between Park and Myrtle Ave- 
• nues, and it is within 10 minutes of the Brooklyn Navy Yard and about 12 minutes 
of Wallabout Market. The Brooklyn Navy Yard is one of the strong arms of the 
country and Wallabout Market is one of the strong arms of your feeding artillery. 
I represent about a thousand parents and neighbors in that district. 

The number of pupils is about 1,500, I believe, or a little more. We have no 
objection, in fact, we are in favor of Mr. Brady's idea of the labor unions taking 
an interest in the education of the parents' children, and we are also in favor of 
the gentlemen who spoke here and gave you figures in regard to the amount of 
money that was spent in Brooklyn for the improvement of schools and advanced 
ideas. We are also in favor of that, but we have not been fortunate enough to get 
any part of that $3,500,000 which he speaks of, and. if there is any school in the 
Borough of Brooklyn that needs part of that $3,500,000, it is certainly Public School 
No. 12. 



^ 49 

Alderman Collins — Have you asked Mrs. Ford for any? 
Mr. Sch wager — Yes; I have. (Applause.) 
The Chairman — And you did not receive it? 

Mr. Schwager — We haven't got it yet, but, gentlemen, we are not being dis- 
couraged. We believe that you gentlemen will deal fair and just and we are living 
in hopes and trying to be on the job, as we have been, and as we expect anybody 
should be, if they are deserving of it. 

I wish to read a few of the complaints I have here. 
These are some of them : 

There are not enough class rooms. About 30 per cent, of the children are on 
part time. These are the small children in Classes from 1-A to 4-B. The basement 
is used for classes and is often damp, causing these children to become ill and 
endangering the future health of the child. 
That is a positive fact, gentlemen. 

Part time children are often compelled to wait outside of the school building 
because the children in the class room have not left the room yet. If the weather 
is bad the waiting children are compelled to stay outside in it. When they do get in 
their class room the time is so short that the room does not get a chance to get 
fresh air. 

The classes are separated by sliding doors which are not sound proof, The study- 
ing of one class can be plainly heard by the classes on either side. This is aggravat- 
ing and annoying, both to the teacher and the pupils, and does not give them a 
chance to do good studying. 

Another annoyance is the passing of teachers or pupils through the different 
rooms in order to get to the hall. This disturbs a class and it attracts the atten- 
tion and interferes with the studies. 

We have no school yard. The children must assemble in the street. 
Gentlemen, this is not just. We pay our taxes and are a part of the city govern- 
ment and we should receive proper accommodations for our children. 

We are grateful to this Committee for the opportunity of explaining our griev- 
ances and hope, gentlemen, you will do what you can to right this wrong. 
There are many of the parents of children of 14 School here tonight. 
The Chairman— Is that 14 School? 

Mr. Schwager — It was previously known as Public School No. 12, but if you will 
remember, the system was changed and the schools were given, so Public School 12 
is now known as Fort Green School. It has a goodly representation here tonight, 
gentlemen, in spite of the bad weather, and many of the parents have children they 
have to take care of. I hope you will give those here a chance to tell you their 
feelings in this matter. I am sorry I have not more copies of this. I would be only 
too glad to give each and every one a copy. 
The Chairman — That is all right. 

Mr. Schwager — I am perfectly willing to give you this one. 

The Chairman — That is all right. Everything you have said has been taken down 
in the record by the stenographer. 

Mr. Saundry, of the same school — Mr. Schwager, are there other speakers you 
want with Mr. Saundry? 

Mr. Schwager — I guess Mr. Saundry is able to take care of that. There are 
plenty of ladies here, if they are willing to tell their views of it. 

The Chairman — We will be glad to have any one who wants to speak. 
Mr. Saundry — Mr. Chairman, and members of this Committee — 
The Chairman — You come from the same, school? 

Mr. Saundry — Yes. The one thing I want to emphasize more strongly than any 
other is that the prraduation exercises of this school have to be held in another 
school. You cannot hold an afternoon tea party in any of the rooms up there. The 



50 

only place where it is possible to hold a large meeting, there is a wall about 18 inches 
thick. 

The Chairman — How old a school is that? 

Mr. Saundry — About 40 years, I believe. 

Mr. Schwager — About 45 years. 

Mr. Samuel H. Kraft — I was a scholar in that school 47 years ago. I am Chair- 
man of the Local School Board No. 32, but I was a scholar in No. 12, and I listened 
to these gentlemen and I know that every word they have said is true. (Applause). 

Mr. Schwager — Permit me just one word. There is one thing I would like to say. 
We also have the honor of having people who have graduated from Public School 
No. 12 who are now teaching there, and also graduates from public schools who are 
teaching in other schools, and we honor and respect our principal and every one of the 
teachers right down to the bottom. They are aces from the beginning to the end, 
and we honor and appreciate our Alderman, August Ferrand, and we appreciate he 
is working in co-operation with the members of the Committee for us. (Applause). 

Mr. Saundry — There are quite a number of men who have been with the militia 
and who have been in the service and whose children go to this school. They are 
able fellows, the lot of them, and the majority of people who send children to that 
school do not mind spending money themselves out of their own pockets and will 
go a great ways to get things right. 

I want to speak about the condition of the basement. Mr. McManus and I went 
in there one day after a snow fall. There was not one dry spot on the basement 
floor where they were teaching the children from 6 years old to about 7. There are 
11 people in this room who will take their solemn oath that this condition exists every 
day, not on rainy days alone, but that they know that condition exists even on sunnj 
days. 

Mr. Schwager — That is right. 

Mr. Saundry — I wrote a letter to the Commissioner of Health calling his atten- 
tion to this condition. It is a building 45 years old, to start off with. 

The Chairman — 47. 

Mr. Saundry — He was a pupil 47 years ago, so it is older than that. This is the 
letter I received : 

"Mr. Henry Saundry, Chairman Ways and Means Committee, Parents Association, 
Public School No. 12, 81 Clermont Avenue, Brooklyn, N. Y. 

"Dear Sir — In further reply to your letter of February 26, the Commissioner 
of Health desires me to inform you that an inspection was made of P. S. No. 12 
during a severe snow storm, and the inspector reported that the basement of the 
building was dry and no evidence of dampness was observed." 

And only 1,000 children had to pass through this to get to their class room, 
"After a severe snow storm and the basement was dry." 

The Chairman— Who sent that? 

Mr. Saundry — S. W. McAneny, Secretary to the Commission. 

"The report states that there are two rooms on the third floor for the use of 
teachers, one for the men and the other for the women teachers. The inspector 
reported that two sessions are held in this school and by reason of this fact the prin- 
cipal's office is used as an examination room. 

"In the opinion of this Department, the health of the children or teachers is not 
being endangered." 

That is getting by with something. We are going to frame this. We are going 
to publish this and have it taken around the district, where everybody can see it. 

For some reason or other there seems to be nobody who really can get anything 
done for Public School No. 12, and everything that brains and work can do to accom- 
plish things that ordinarily in anv other walk in life, the enerev that has been applied 



51 

to get something, where if applied in any other walk of life it would be successful, 
in the public schools seems to go to the wall, and we think if you gentlemen or any 
member of this body could spend the time to go around and see that school and see 
the work done by the pupils under real difficulties, I think we; could interest you in 
the matter. 

Alderman Friedlander — Who is the Alderman for that district? 

Mr. Saundry — August Ferrand. I would like you to see the conditions on a 
foggy day and see the dry basement that 1,000 children have; to pass through and so 
they say it is dry. 

That is about all. We have no kick coming against the educational training. 

The Chairman — The next speaker will be Mr. John J. Snyder, Chairman of Local 
School Board No. 48. 

Mr. John J. Snyder — I hope, in considering this question as raised by Mr. Brady, 
to which I believe this meeting is due, I hope that vocational training and shop work 
in elementary schools will not be confused. 

In my position as a principal of the local school board I have an intimate knowl- 
edge of the effect of shop work in elementary schools. Vocational training in voca- 
tional schools, that I am not so well informed on, and therefore I do not propose to 
discuss it when others can speak so much better and have so much more knowledge 
than I have. 

I hope this will not confuse the work being done in elementary schools. The idea 
of shop work in schools is not with the idea or view of training scholars for mechani- 
cal vocations. It is rather, as Mrs. Ritter has intimated, a training of hands and I 
think you all and all others will agree with me that at the present time we want as 
much as possible to give the boys and girls the impression that respectability does not 
merely end in mental capacity only. In other words, I mean to say that a boy can be 
a mechanic and he can wear overalls and he can be held just as high in the estimation 
of the public as the boy who is a bank clerk and who can sport a collar without being 
soiled. (Applause.) 

That is the element of usefulness of shop training in elementary schools, and I 
hope in considering this question that that will be separated entirely from the ques- 
tion of vocational training, because I think the two subjects should be considered from 
a separate standpoint entirely. In the few brief moments that are allotted to me, I 
will just touch on two or three subjects very casually and briefly. 

I want to sound a warning to you gentlemen who share in holding the purse 
strings of the city, and that is that in my capacity I visit the different schools. I 
have means of observing the condition of the schools, what money is devoted to 
their repairs, and so forth, and I can tell you now that unless some different method 
is followed in making repairs on our public school buildings in the very near future our 
city will Have a most beautiful bill to confront them. I am given to understand that 
the cost of maintaining buildings held by corporations and individuals of the same 
character as public schools requires about 2 per cent, of their value for maintenance. 
To-day less than one per cent, is spent for the maintenance of our public school 
buildings and the result of that is that some of the most urgent repairs are side- 
tracked, not merely as a whim of the Superintendent of Buildings, or his subordi- 
nates, but because there is not actually the money there to make the repairs, and you 
would be astonished how some of the most necessary repairs and those which should 
not be postponed are included in that amount. 

You will enter a building and find a leak in the roof. It would require perhaps a 
dollar or two dollars to make the repairs. It is not available. That leak is allowed 
to continue, and the result is the walls are all discolored and perhaps one or two, I 
have seen where the rooms from one floor down to the basement had to be all painted 
and kalsomined and repaired because that little leak which originally would cost a 
few dollars to put in condition was allowed to go, and those are the results. 



52 

This is not a matter of theory on my part, but a matter of actual observation. 
There are other repairs which are really a menace to health and the physical con- 
dition of the children, and they are allowed to go for some reason. 

If you will ask me what improvement could be made in our school system to- 
day, to aid its efficiency, there are of course many improvements that could be made, 
but two I could mention I think may not be paramount, but still they are of excep- 
tional importance. One of those is, I would make the terms of office of the District 
Superintendent and Associate Superintendent a life tenure in office. This necessity of 
the Superintendents playing politics at the end of each of their terms in order to re- 
tain their offices I think is a mistake. 

Alderman Haubert — What do you mean by politics? 

Mr. Snyder — If anybody else but a member of the Board of Aldermen were to 
ask me that question I would explain it. 

Alderman Haubert — That is a compliment. 

Mr. Snyder — That is a compliment. I intend it as a compliment. 
' I think the personnel of our Board of Superintendents cannot be improved. 
They are all men of high ability, and what I say I do not wish to say anything to 
reflect on their capabilities, their integrity or anything else of that kind, but they have 
not got the courage of their convictions, merely because they have got to study their 
individual interest. 

I could cite many examples to testify to that claim. One of them at the present 
time is before us now. and we, perhaps many of us, do not read between the lines, 
but nevertheless that is the situation. We have here one of our greatest institutions of 
education in Brooklyn, Erasmus Hall. Why was the appointment of the principal 
postponed for three months? 

Alderman Friedlander — Politics. (Applause.) 

Mr. Snyder — I won't say politics, but I will simply say this, that the superinten- 
dents were afraid to declare their position, because they thought it would be adverse 
to the public wishes, or perhaps to the Board of Education. They did not want to 
antagonize their interests. Can you for a moment imagine that an assemblage of 
men similar to the Board of Superintendents would require three months to select a 
man for that post? I am confident in saying that inside of two weeks after the 
death of the very worthy gentleman who formerly occupied that position that they 
could have made that appointment, and they could have made it with intelligence if 
they had been given the privilege of doing so without having to appeal to any higher 
body. For that reason I say they should be made independent. 

Another thing I would say, cut out the red tape. We have too much red tape 
in the Board of Education. (Applause.) 

The Chairman — Mr. J. L. Beregen. 

Mr. Joseph L. Beregen — I have a subject upon the Building Department. 

The Chairman — Is it pertaining to the educational facilities? 

Mr. Beregen — No, it is the Building Department. 

The Chairman — As applied to the schools? 

Mr. Beregen— Yes. I have a contract upon No. 6 School for $550, which I let 
out on said contract to a man by the name of L. L. Wright & Company for $50, for 
asphalting. 

The Chairman — Is this a personal grievance you have against the Board of Educa- 
tion? I mean is it some contract they have not given you a proper adjustment of? 

Mr. Beregen — No. 

The Chairman — Because if that is the case, we do not want to pay any more at- 
tention to that than we did to this grievance against a particular principal. 

Alderman Haubert — What is it you want to say? 

Mr. Beregen — The bill has been paid. and I paid back the Comptroller $20. 



S3 

The Chairman — We won't consider the $20. 

Mr. Beregen— They let the contract out for a $50 contract. 

Alderman Collins — We are listening- to complaints of the Board of Education, 
not individual fights. 

The Chairman — We won't consider that, if you have in mind an individual com- 
plaint. 

Mr. Beregen — I done some work upon five schools. 

The Chairman — And you have not been paid? 

Mr. Beregen — Yes, I have been paid. 

The Chairman — We have not anything to do with that. I do not like to be rude. 
I want to try to give every one an opportunity for every grievance, but that is your 
personal matter. 

Mr. Beregen — This is not a personal matter. 

The Chairman — What you just referred to, a $20 claim against the city? 

Mr. Beregen — I have not got a $20 claim against the city. 

The Chairman— Was it $50? 

Mr. Beregen — No, I have not any claim whatever. You misunderstood me. I 
paid the Comptroller back $20 which the Board of Education thought to pay to this 
man Wright. He thought to pay the $20 that was not coming to him. 

The Chairman — We have nothing to do with that. We do not want to consider 
that. 

Mr. Beregen — And he took me to the court. 

The Chairman — You say the matter is now in court: 

Alderman Friedlander — What school does your children attend? 

Mr. Beregen — My children do not go to school. 

Alderman Friedlander — You have no grievance against the school, have you? 

Mr. Beregen — No. 

The Chairman — We are holding these hearings in relation to the Board of Edu- 
cation and not for individual grievances. 

James Jenkins, Jr., Secretary of Local, School Board No. 27. 

(Written report submitted for Mr. Jenkins.) 

The Chairman — Mr. Gregory Weinstein, Chairman of the Committee on Educa- 
tion, Flatbush Taxpayers' Association, Brooklyn. 

Mr. Gregory Weinstein — Mr. Chairman and gentlemen : Mr. Snyder is the Chair- 
man of the Local School Board. He had an opportunity to speak about the condition 
of our schools in Flatbush to which I want to call your attention. 

The Flatbush District is very large. It is a large one, going from Labone Street 
away down practically to Barren Island, and from Nostrand Avenue down to Bath 
Beach, almost bordering on there. 

The population of Flatbush is growing very rapidly and we are feeling con- 
stantly the need of new schools. 

We have a new school in Flatbush called Public School 92. That school was 
opened, I think, about six or seven years ago. That school is already greatly over- 
crowded, and you can imagine what classes are conducted in the auditorium, without 
any partitions at all. 

Alderman Collins — Part time classes there? 

Mr. Weinstein — Yes. We have part time, too. There are four classes being 
conducted in the auditorium, without any sliding partitions, and you can imagine 
what sort of instruction you can give children under such circumstances. Of course, 
the principals and the teachers are doing the best they can. We have been asking for 
additional schools. The Board of Education, as I understand it, has proposed to 
give us relief in the near future by the purchase of a site in 34th Street and Snyder 
Avenue, and also a school on Malbone Street somewhere between Rogers Avenue and 
Nostrand Avenue. 



54 

I would like to call your attention to the fact so that when the matter comes up 
before the Board of Estimate you will give us your help in this matter. 

I would like to ask you gentlemen to consider the question as to what is more 
important in the building of schools, whether you approve of the present quality of 
the Board of Education in building immense schools, what they call the duplicate 
school system. Now, I will give you just a sample right in Flatbush. There is a 
very small school conducted in a wooden shanty over in Rugby. I presume there is 
somebody here who knows where that section is. The people of Rugby have been 
clamoring many years for a new school and it was finally proposed by the Board of 
Education that they shall have a school right there. Now, the Board of Estimate pro- 
posed instead of building a school for them in Rugby and putting up another school 
in the Snyder Avenue site, I learned today that they have decided to put up a 
larger school, a much larger school, a school that calls for 72 classes, over on Snyder 
Avenue and East 34th Street. 

I think that is a proposition which we all ought to be interested in, and I believe 
it is a question of whether this policy of building up immense schools to draw chil- 
dren from large areas, compelling children to walk even a distance of a mile and a 
half, is a wise one. It is not only a question of the convenience of children. That 
is not the only question, because you may say a good many people years ago used to 
walk two miles and it did not do any harm, but the question is a simple one : Is it a 
wise policy to build immense schools, and is it possible to give good instruction, is it 
possible to give good education, and is it possible for the principal to do his duty by 
his children when he has to take care of 72 classes? 

This is the question which you, as men of experience, must decide, and I believe 
this a point on which we must take a stand. Of course there is the question of money, 
the question of economy. That is being urged as the main reason for doing this. I 
know it is being done in Manhattan and the Bronx. This is the new policy of the 
district, but from my standpoint I believe that while it may look economical at sight, 
I believe in the long run we are going to pay more for it, by giving our children a 
poorer education than they are entitled to. 

This is particularly a point I would like to leave with you : The same question of 
economy is being carried out in our high schools today. Then this is a very serious mat- 
ter: We are trying to economize in every way, which is very wise, but the question 
is whether it is proper to economize at the expense of the children. That is a mighty 
important question. Our high schools today are employing a large number of so-called 
teachers in training. You know what they are, girls taken out from training or from 
a college. They get in there, and the theory is that they get in there to learn how 
to teach and they are supposed to be under the training of a supervisor who should 
watch them. They are also supposed to be in the schools to care for and watch the 
teachers and their children, so that they may get their experience. This is the theory 
of it, but as a matter of fact, and I know whereof I speak, these girls are simply 
being used, these fresh, inexperienced girls, who are no doubt doing their best, they 
are being used simply to take the place of experienced teachers. 

Just put yourself in their places. If you have a girl or boy in a high school she 
or he is entitled to instruction by a competent teacher. There is no question about 
it. You will agree with me on that. Instead of that, what does she or he get? The 
girl is supposed to be simply an apprentice and she is thrown into the class room and 
told to take care of that class as if she had been there many years, and you can 
imagine yourself what it leads to. It simply means that a girl or boy in the first year 
of his or her training gets a poor start ; and in the long run you will have to pay 
for it, and I say the question of economy must be considered not merely in the pres- 
ent, but in its effect on the future generations. 

The Chairman — Mr. Peter W. Schlosser, of the Tenants' Union. Will you tell us 
anything new tonight? 



55 

Mr. Peter Schlosser — Yes, I will try to. 

The Chairman — You are not going to follow us around in a circle? 

Mr. Schlosser — No. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, I have heard quite a few 
illustrations here, and the general consensus of opinion seems to be that there are 
not sufficient schools, that is, common schools. 

I want to say in behalf of the people that we have the honor to represent, the 
working people, the ones who bear the burdens of all the schools, that if there be 
any shortage of schools at all anywhere, we are in favor of the abolishing of the 
high schools and turning them into high schools so that every child of the age of 
15 years can get a seat and an education (applause), as we believe it is unquestionably 
unfair and undemocratic to ask a parent whose means preclude his own child taking 
the advantage of a high school education, it is absolutely unjust to ask him to pay 
taxes so that a far better situated father or mother can have their child taught free 
at his expense. I do not believe there is a bit of justice or democracy in that. 

Secondly, one gentleman has said here about the teacher question. I am going 
to add a little bit to it. If, in the appointment of teachers, only the natural and 
honest examination prevails, and those who receive the privilege were appointed, 
that would not be at all questionable, but we find, too sad to say, that the majority 
of people are of the belief that the same sinister influences that govern all city em- 
ployees' appointments are evident in the teacher's appointments as well as in the 
police, fire and every other department. If they haven't got the "cush" they need not 
apply. 

Alderman Collins — What are those sinister influences? 

Mr. Schlosser — I have to answer the same as the other gentlemen, if I have got 
to enlighten the Board of Aldermen on that subject, I am sorry for the Board. 

Alderman Collins — I am asking you a question, 1 do not think you replied to me. 

Mr. Schlosser — Shall I give you a direct answer? 

Alderman Collins — I say I do not know what you mean by sinister influences. 

Mr. Schlosser — You don't? 

Alderman Collins — I have taught in the public schools and I know a thing or two 
about them when I ask you to define sinister influences for me. I do not think 
your answer is fair. 

Mr. Schlosser — The majority of people I come in contact with, highly intelligent 
classes among the working people, are fully and firmly convinced that it is the 
old English story, "You pays your money and takes your choice, and if you haven't 
got the money you can just simply stay at home." 

Furthermore, on the high school education, we are taught we have great progress 
in conditions, got many more schools, finer schools, regular little palaces of Persian 
splendor for children to come in and admire all the beauties of, but I do not see 
any material progress experienced in educating the child. We have much more 
teachers than probably one of the greatest presidents of the United States ever 
had. He did not have a common school education. I refer to Abraham Lincoln, and 
I believe he was intelligent enough to be a principal of the Board of Education if he 
were alive now. 

Then, furthermore, as for the bigger school, I fully agree with the gentleman, 
that if the big schools were divided so as to cover a bigger area, it would be far 
more favorable, and furthermore, what does our high school give us ? We have 
got a horde of highly educated people all over the United States, people whom we 
should believe had been ennobled by the educations they have received. Sad to say, 
when we read the records of the Rogue's Gallery, we read some of the famous names 
in State's Prisons, we read the names of eminent men who have been addressed by 
the prefix "The Honorable" and we find them behind the bars, and sometimes re- 
stored to citizenship, and it looks as if the benefits of education were not half as 
big as they were estimated to be. 



56 

I will close and not waste any more of your time, by saying that if we instead 
of all this fancy teaching taught these children to work and grow, we would have 
better results. A child of 15 has not determined what trade or calling he will prefer 
in life, and consequently in order to give adequate preparation you would have to 
teach him every known trade on the calendar. 

I will say now, go back to the original principle of education, teach your children 
the three R's, as we call it ; give them a good smattering of natural philosophy, which 
is the foundation stone of each and every trade, and then you won't have the working 
people supporting a whole horde of highly educated parasites who fatten upon the 
poor, parasites whom education has only made into the belief that they are too 
noble and dignified to work for a living, and they have got to sit on somebody 
else's back. (Applause.) 

The Chairman — Is there any person who desires to be heard? I have no 
further names? 

Mr. James F. Hurley — I am Chairman of Local School Board No. 29. I re- 
ceived notice this morning postmarked April 4, at 12.30 p. m. I would like to be 
heard in behalf of this Committee on conditions in this district, but I have not had 
adequate notice to prepare such information for your Committee. 

Alderman Ferguson — When did the notice go to the Local School Board? 

Mr. White (Secretary to the Committee) — Monday evening. 

Mr. Hurley — It is postmarked April 4, at 12.30 p. m. 

Mr. White — There must have been a delay in the general post office. It was 
mailed Monday evening. 

The Chairman — The mail clerk says it was mailed on Monday night. Do you 
want to submit what you had to enlighten the Committee upon? 

Mr. Hurley— How much time do we have, sir? 

The Chairman — Of would you like to speak out in Brownsville? 

Mr. Hurley — I have a great many conditions to talk about and it would take too 
long at this late hour. I would prefer to put it in more concrete form. 

The Chairman — If you want to present it in person at Brownsville we will 
be glad to hear you three weeks from tonight. I do not think we could get in this 
section of Brooklyn again, because we have a tremendous amount of territory that 
has not yet been covered, because we have to hold a meeting next week in Astoria 
and there are other meetings after that. 

Mr. Hurley — Doubtless the meeting in the East New York or Brownsville section, 
I will be at that. 

The Chairman — Suppose you make it the Brownsville section three weeks from 
tonight, April 26, Public School 84. 

Any other speakers? 

Mr Lionel Sutro— Mr. Lionel Sutro is here, although he has no children in the 
public schools and does not live in Brooklyn, and does or does not, as he sees fit, 
follow around this Committee of the Board of Aldermen to listen to these hearings, 
in behalf of the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York. We are just as 
anxious as you are to know what is going on. 

I further recommend, if you gentlemen have time, this is a recommendation, to 
visit some of the schools yourselves, old school No. 40, which I went to 45 years 
ago, and compare it with some of the new schools. We desire you to get a judgment 
of the matter. 

The Chairman — We contemplate doing that as soon as we get through these 
hearings. 

Mr. Sutro — We are also going to ask that you send us a copy of these minutes 
if we can get them later on. 

The Chairman — We won't have them in duplicate. We won't have sufficient 



57 

numbers in duplicate. You might be able to arrange with the stenographer so as to 
furnish you a copy. 

Mr. Sutro — I think we will get all the information we want from other sources. 
Alderman Collins — Your body intends to submit a brief? 
Mr. Sutro — We have sent some. We will send all. 
The Chairman — -You are simply watching the meetings? 

Mr. Sutro — Yes. We are just as anxious as you are to know what is going on. 
Alderman Collins — We want information. 

Mr. Sutro — That is all that we want, the same as you do. We want to co- 
operate with you. 

The Chairman — That is what we want. That is why we hear both sides on all 
questions, except personal ones. 

Is there any one else that wants to be heard at this hearing? 
Mrs. Adams — I have just a suggestion to make, that when you advertise an- 
other meeting that you be more specific in stating the object of that meeting. 

I read in The Globe tonight, and I am not here with any complaint at all, did 
not come for that purpose; I came to listen, but I read in The Globe tonight that 
this- meeting was called for the purpose of hearing complaints from the teachers and 
parents, and this lady who came up here to speak was. I think, a parent, and from 
what she read in The Globe she concluded the same as I did, that the meeting was 
for the purpose of hearing complaints. 

Now, another time, so as to avoid turning down women who have come out on a 
night like this, why not state very carefully what your meeting is called for. (Ap- 
plause.) 

The Chairman — We did not, of course, put that particular article in The Globe. 
Probably the gentleman who is responsible for it is sitting right here. (Indicating 
reporter.) But he did not in any way misquote the business or misstate the business, 
but of course he did not believe that any of the people in Brooklyn would infer 
from what he said in his article in The Globe, which I read tonight, that we 
would hear personal grievances against personal individuals, against individual teachers, 
that such things would be considered. If he did misstate it, I think from now on he 
will correct that misinterpretation, because there is no such intention on the part 
of the Committee. 

I do not know what side of this grievance you are on. 
Mrs. Adams — I am not on any. 

The Chairman — You are interested in School 65, are you? 

Mrs. Adams — I am not interested in any particular school. I came to listen, 
and I say that my sympathy was with this woman. I know nothing about the 
case whatever, but evidently she got the idea that I did from the paper, that this 
meeting was called here for grievances, and then, Mr. Chairman, I understand this 
is a hearing? 

The Chairman — Yes, Madam, but not a hearing to hear personal grievances. 
Mrs. Adams — You will excuse me for saying it, but I think that your Committee 
assembled for the purpose of a hearing has been most impolite to those speakers. 
The Chairman — That is a matter of opinion, Madam. 

Mrs. Frost — Mr. Chairman and Friends : I just want to say that I represent the 
Mothers' Council of Public Schools of the City of New York, where we are as much 
interested in one Borough as another. I regret very much that our report is not 
ready in full for to-night, but we will present it to you, gentlemen, within a week. 
The Chairman — At the next hearing in Astoria? 

Mrs. Frost — Yes, or before. Well, I will probably be there. We have members 
of our Association in every Borough. We are therefore interested in every hearing, 
and we are also interested, not so much in my particular plan, as we are in the Council 
on behalf of the little children, and the best that New York City can do for these 
little children, and we are also interested in the condition of every public school. 



58 

If there is any one here who has traveled around for the last 15 years much more 
than I have, I would like to meet them, and we will go over some data together and 
present them to the Board, because I know pretty well about the conditions in all the 
Boroughs. I also want to say that the parents, and the enemies, the Board of 
Education, gentlemen, they say to me that the fathers are quite as much mothers and 
should be included in our Mothers' Club. I want to say that I think taxation without 
representation of the parents in school matters has always been bad. 

I personally thank Mr. Brady and his Committee, on behalf of the Council, for 
giving us this sort of a hearing. I thank you. (Applause.) 

I present, therefore, the same resolution to this Board that we presented over a 
year and a half ago to the Board of Education, asking them to not install more schools 
with the new system until those already authorized were fully equipped, and, gentle- 
men, there is no one more fitted to speak for the expenditure of more money on schools 
that are fully equipped than I am. If there is, I have not found them. (Applause.) 

The Chairman — The next hearing will be at Public School No. 6, Astoria, on 
Thursday night, at 8.00 P. M'. 



MINUTES OF HEARING BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON GENERAL 
WELFARE OF THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN ON THE FOLLOWING 
MATTER: 

"No. 1242. Request of the conference of organized labor to the Board to hold 
hearings and to invite the Board of Education and city officials to answer why 
the demands for better educational facilities have not been respected." 

Public School No. 6, Steinway Avenue, between Broadway and Jamaica Avenue, 
Astoria, Long Island City, April 12, 1917; 8.00 P. M. 

Present — Alderman Robitzek, Chairman; Collins, Ferguson, Members of Com- 
mittee on General Welfare. 

Chairman Robitzek — This is a meeting of the Committee on General Welfare, 
for the purpose of considering a petition presented by the conference of organized 
labor and others, to consider school facilities in the City of New York. 

Is Mr. Peter A. Brady, the petitioner, here? 

Mr. Coler — Mr. Brady was also at Albany and was still arguing the Committee 
when I left. I think his train was late. 

The Chairman — Mr. Brady is the Secretary of the Conference of Organized Labor, 
which presented the petition to the Board of Aldermen, which has been referred to 
this Committee for hearing and determining. Mr. Brady being absent unavoidably, 
we will hear from Mr. Seidel, of the Citizens' and Parents' Association of Public 
School No. 6. 

Mr. George Seidel — The Citizens' and Parents' Association of Public School No. 
6, Queens, respectfully call your attention to the efforts of the parents to obtain 
better and sufficient school accommodations at Public School No. 6, and after four 
years of continual agitation and demand of the Board of Education, and by recom- 
mendations through our representative in the Board of Education Mr. Bernard Suy- 
dam, not the slightest heed has been given any recommendation, protest, or demand 
of the parents or their commissioner by the said Board of Education, and the result 
has been intolerable congestion at this school. 

The register of our school in the years 1912, 1,621; 1913, 1,828; 1914, 1,927; 1915, 
1,967 ; 1916, 2,036. To-day the register is 2,050. 

The legal seating capacity is but 1,573, while the sittings are 1,664. The increase 
in registry from 1912 to 1916 has been 420 pupils, or the equivalent of ten classes. 
There are 18 classes on double session, and two classes on part time. Little or no 
play ground space has been another serious handicap. 

We contend, therefore, that, with the present attendance at this school, and the 



59 

prospect of a largely increased population in the near future, due to the opening of 
the new rapid transit lines, a new school is the only proper relief for the present 
congestion. 

We have been offered relief by the Board of Education by their promise to install 
the work-study-plan. Leaving aside entirely the question of the merits of the plan, 
we contend that beyond any doubt, it is absolutely impracticable to make such alter- 
ations and changes as are proposed for the installation of this plan in our particular 
school No. 6, Queens. 

From a sanitary viewpoint, the basement which will house from 300 to 400 chil- 
dren at all hours of the day under this plan is absolutely unfit for such purposes. 
Four of the present class rooms now being used under pressure for space are totally 
unfit for class room work. The vision of the children is seriously impaired by poor 
light. Under the duplicate plan it is proposed to continue these four unfit class rooms 
for regular work, and twelve of the finest and best rooms in the new portion of our 
building are to be taken for shops, kitchens, and special activities. 

Economically it is worse than a failure. It constitutes gross misappropriation, 
and wilful waste of public funds, as the remodeled school will at best accommodate 
only about 150 pupils more than the present register, and for this it is proposed to 
expend the greater part of $99,000. The balance of this money is for the acquisition 
of six lots for so-called organized play under the duplicate school plan, and these 
lots are across the street and away from the general supervision of the school. Fur- 
ther this additional land for play ground was to be e/ntirely contingent upon th« 
introduction of the Gary plan. 

The Board of Education has given us the alternative of accepting this relief or 
nothing. The parents have unquestionably and unanimously at two separate mass 
meetings held for this purpose, decided not to accept this conditional offer of relief, 
for the one good reason that the proper relief cannot possibly be obtained in this 
manner. 

The parents therefore recommend, suggest and pray that the erection of an en- 
tirely new school building be commenced on the site already owned by the city, at 
Pierce and Fourth Avenues, and that the $99,000 appropriated for alterations at No. 6 
be put to a more practical use in erecting so much of a nejw school building as the 
$99,000 will permit as a start. The parents are perfectly willing to sacrifice this bet- 
ter termed misappropriation for the alteration of P. S. No. 6 for a real appropria- 
tion towards erecting a new school. 

We contend that in this manner both the city and the school patrons will get 
three times the value of this money. First, a ten-lot school site which has been lying 
dormant for 15 years or more is immediately available without the expenditure of a 
dollar for land. Secondly, full value in new and additional construction for the 
$99,000, and thirdly because it affords the only sane and proper solution of present 
and future relief. 

In conclusion we ask particularly and emphatically that the Board of Education 
be enjoined from making any alterations or further plans for the remodeling of P. 
S. No. 6 while this investigation by your honorable committee is being conducted, 
and its findings made conclusive. 

The Chairman — Mr. Seidel, have you copies of your report? 

Mr. Seidel — Yes. 

The Chairman — Would you send copies of it to the several members of the 
Committee ? 

Mr. Seidel — Yes. 

The Chairman — I am very much interested in what you said and I would like 
to have copies of your report. 

Mr. Seidel — I will send one to each member of the Committee. 

The Chairman — Mr. Doyle. 



60 

(No response.) 

Mr. Rudolph Bleckwenn, representing parents in vicinity of new school advo- 
cated. 

Mr. Rudolph Blackwenn — Mr. Chairman and members of the Aldermanic Inves- 
tigating Committee,: 

Having conducted a personal investigation in regard to the building of a new 
school on the property owned for the past 12 years or more by the City of New 
York, which is bounded by Pierce, Fourth and Fifth Avenues, First Ward, Bor- 
ough of Queens, I find that within a radius of five blocks of this site, there are 
more than 500 children attending Public Schools Nos. 4, 5 and 6, which are located 
from 10 to 15 blocks from this site. 

In order for the children to reach these schools, it is necessary to cross differ- 
ent trolley lines, and also many streets where there is a continuous line of auto- 
mobile and other traffic. 

On account of these conditions, it is necessary in many cases for parents to 
accompany their children to and from school. 

Many of these children are forced to go without their noon-day meal on account 
of the distance and time consumed in travel. In stormy weather the children are 
often obliged to sit all day in wet clothing due to distances which they have to 
travel in order to reach their respective schools. 

In conclusion, on behalf of the parents of these children. I respectfully request 
your most honorable Committee to thoroughly investigate this matter, and by doing 
so, I feel that you will find that the erection of a new School is the only possible 
way to remedy existing conditions, and also relieve the congestion in the other 
schools. (Applause.) 

The Chairman — Mr. Henry C. Riehl. 

Mr. Henry C. Riehl — Mr. Chairman and the Examining Board : As father of 
two children who are now attending Public School No. 5, I can verify to the remarks 
of the previous speaker. The site in question, where the school is advocated, is in the 
center of a locality which is long restricted to residence,s and where no factory sites 
can be built. The site in question is between the subway and "L" stations of the 
Broadway and Washington Avenue line, and with these facilitiees you can imagine 
the numerous families that are going to be coming out in this section in the very 
near future. 

On account of the present congestion in the schools and the distance that child- 
ren now have to travel, I think it is most essential that it is necessary enough to erect 
a school in the section where a site which the city now owns is located. 

As stated before, the railroad facilities will be the means of bringing out numer- 
ous families to this section, and it is only going to be a matter of time when it is 
going to be a matter of compulsion to build a new school, and it certainly seems 
to me, as a father of two children now attending school, that we should take time 
by the forelock and erect a school in the very near future. (Applause.) 

The Chairman — Thomas M. Quinn, Ex-Alderman and Sheriff of Queens County. 

Mr. Thomas M. Quinn — Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, I have not pre- 
pared any brief, but I felt that if my presence here this evening might be of any 
assistance to the neighborhood, I would gladly come. I have learned from the few 
remarks since I have come here that the Board of Education admits that there is 
something wanting in Public School No. 6, and I feel from an economic standpoint 
that it would be useless, it would be a shame to spend $100,000 and still have nothing 
but a remodeled school building whose original cost did not equal that. 

It affords me great pleasure to hear Mr. Blackwenn remind the Committee of the 
land that is owned by the Board of Education and has bee,n owned for many years, 
that is lying idle just midway between this and the nearest school to the south, 
that is just 20 long blocks away from here. 



61 

I feel that it is something that will have to be done in the very near future as 
a necessity to build a new school house in that neighborhood. Conditions in this par- 
ticular neighborhood are unknown. Today it is the principal business center of Long 
Island City. The section in which the land is owned by the city is the residential 
section, and I believe that the presence of the Committee of the Board of Alder- 
men being here tonight is significant of the fact that they want to see justice done 
to our particular end of the city. 

On behalf of my neighbors I want to thank them for their presence. I want 
to thank them for the interest they are taking in us. I will ask them to look over 
the ground carefully, and I believe that if they will give the matter much consider- 
ation they will endorse the sentiment expressed by Mr. Bleckwenn. 

Gentlemen, thank you. (Applause.) 

The Chairman — Mrs. Ed. Matthews, President of the Mothers' Club of Public 
School No. 6. 

Mrs. Edward Matthews — Mr. Chairman and members of the General Welfare 
Committee : 

I represent the Mothers' Club of Public School No. 6, Queens, and I wish to give 
you a few facts regarding our school conditions. 

In October, 1914, the Mothers' Club appointed a Building Committee to work to 
improve the conditions of the school as there were at that time over 300 children on 
part time. 

We called on Chairman Wilsey of the Committee on Buildings of the Board of 
Education and explained conditions in the school. Mr. Collins, the Deputy Super- 
intendent of School Buildings investigated and found our report to be true. We hoped 
at that time that the erection of a new building would be the result. However, an 
annex was recommended. 

The Chairman — Recommended by the Committee on Building Sites? 

Mrs. Matthews — Yes. Our committee inspected and suggested various vacant 
stores and buildings in the vicinity, but many reasons were given us why these places 
could not be used. 

Finally it was decided that the annex would be built on the property adjoining 
the school and be rented to the Board of Education. By this time it was the Spring 
of 1915, and conditions were growing worse. Although we visited various officials to 
expedite matters this proposition was finally given up through delay in passing upon 
the terms of the lease. 

In the Fall of 1915, we again brought up the crowded condition of the school. 
We learned that it might be possible for us to get a portable building on the site 
owned by the city at Fourth and Pierce Avenues. This would have relieved the con- 
gestion as a great many children come from that section. However, this was 
denied us. 

The next recommendation by the Board of Education was an addition to the 
school, for which an appropriation was asked. For some reason instead of an addi- 
tion, we were told that the Gary or duplicate plan would be installed. The Mothers' 
Club went on record with the Board of Education and the Board of Estimate, request- 
ing that the Gary plan be not installed in Public School No. 6, until it had demon- 
strated its value in the schools in which it was then being tried. Our wishes in this 
matter having been disregarded, and as the plans for the alteration of our building 
were being completed, we, with other representatives of our community appeared be- 
fore the Board of Education to request the original addition. Our Borough Presi- 
dent, Mr. Connolly, protested for us to the Board of Estimate and asked that our 
appropriation might not be lost. 

As part of the appropriation was to be used to purchase lots for playground space 
we hoped to get the badly needed playground. But it seems this, too, has been denied 
us. It appears that we have been treated like disobedient children. 



62 

The situation might have been relieved three years ago with much less expense, 
but we met with nothing but denials and delays. 

Gentlemen, we are of the opinion that, regardless of what is claimed for the Gary 
system, it cannot be of use in solving the situation in Public School No. 6, and what 
we want is a new building. (Applause.) 

The Chairman — At this time Mr. Seidel has submitted several communications 
and petitions and he has requested me to file them with the Clerk of the Committee 
and they will, of course, appear in the minutes of the Committee. One of these 
communications is from the Chairman of the Local School Board No. 42, Borough 
of Queens, Mr. Shugrue. 

One is a communication on the school sites and buildings required in District 
No. 42, New York City, as recommended by the Local School Board, being a report 
of the Chairman of the School Board of District No. 2, and a communication addressed 
to Mr. Palmer, Secretary of the Board of Education, on February 13, 1917, and signed 
by the Secretary of Local School Board No. 42. 

There is also a communication which I will offer at this time from the Tax- 
payers' Association of Richmond Borough, Staten Island, and a communication from 
the principal of Public School No. 54, Borough of The Bronx. 

"April 12, 1917. 
"General Welfare Committee, Board of Aldermen. New York City. 

"Gentlemen — In reference to the proposed investigation of the adequacy, and 
effectiveness of the New York City educational system, I beg to submit copies 
of the semi-annual reports of Local School Board No. 42, Borough of Queens, 
covering the requirements of this district and the difficultiese not within the 
efforts of the Local School Board to provide proper school facilities for the 
children of this section. 

"As an example, I beg to cite the case of the recommendation of the Local 
School Board in reference to the purchase of a site and the erection of a school 
building in the vicinity of Caldwell Avenue Nassau Heights, Elmhurst and also 
the erection of a permanent school building at Forest Hills. 

"After continual advocation on the part of the Local School Board for a 
number of years for the adoption of these recommendations they were finally 
approved by the member of the Board of Education, the Board of Superin- 
tendents, and adopted by the Board of Education and forwarded to the Board 
of Estimate. 

"We now understand that it is proposed that by making certain changes in 
Public School No. 89 and Public School No. 72, and having double session 
classes in these schools it will not be necessary to erect a new building at Nas- 
sau Heights. 

"This may be a saving of money but it is very evident that this arrange- 
ment will not benefit the children of Nassau Heights who will still have to travel 
or be conveyed a long distance to school as at present, and mentioned in attached 
report. Very truly yours, 

(Signed) "M. J. SHUGRUE, Chairman Local School Board No. 42, Bor- 
ough of Queens. 
"83 Kingsland Ave., Corona, N. Y." 

"Elmhurst, N. Y., March 16, 1916. 
'\M>r. A. E. Palmer, Secretary Board of Education, 59th Street and Park Avenue, 
New York City, N. Y. 
"Dear Sir — Following is a report of the conditions now existing in Local 
School Board. District No. 42, from which it is evident the urgent necessity that 
proper provision be made to take care of the school accommodations for this 
section which is fast improving and at the opening of the elevated lines on Sec- 



63 

ond Avenue and Roosevelt Avenue in the near future will then increase at a 
rate that it will be impossible for our school systems to keep up with. 
"Newtown High School — 

"Conditions of ever crowding and improper school facilities are even worse 
than at the time of our last report and notwithstanding the fact that this 
recommendation stands first on the list of H. S. submitted by the Board of Super- 
intendents nothing has been done to help the situation. 
"Public School No. 19, Lake St. 41st and 42nd Sts. Corona — 

"The new elevated structure which is now about completed and will have 
trains running on the same in the near future passes over the school property 
and so close to the building that it will interfere with the work of this school. 

"A new school building located at Lake Street — 41st and 42nd Street — is neces- 
sary and should be in course of construction at this time. 
"Pierce Ave., Rapelyea and Brielle St., Steinway Ave. — 

"The crowded conditions which have existed at Public School No. 6, Stein- 
way Avenue have now reached a stage which is almost unbearable, notwithstand- 
ing the fact that this Board has repeatedly requested that some action be taken 
to relieve these conditions until at the present time we now have 544 children on 
part time. Various propositions have been suggested by this Board to bring 
about relief, but all have been of no avail. It was suggested that the auditor- 
ium be divided into class rooms with movable partitions, but this plan has not 
been approved. 

"The owner of the property adjacent to the school building offered to erect 
a building which would be leased to the City for school purposes, but finally 
tired of waiting for the Board of Education to adjust matters and decided to 
use his capital for other purposes. 

"The erection of a portable building on the City site at Pierce and Rape- 
lyes Avenues and Brielle Street was recommended by the Board of Education ; 
authorized by the Board of Aldermen ; but not approved by the Board of Esti- 
mate and the people of this section who are heavily taxed for school accom- 
modations which they are deprived of are forced to sit back and watch the sit- 
uation drift, while the Board of Estimate is trying to make up its mind as to 
whether a Gary school should be organized at this school. 

"The selection of a site and the erection of a school in the vicinity of 16th 
Street and Graham Avenue was suggested, but no favorable action taken. 

"In view of the above facts and the necessity of providing accommodations 
at once for a section which has indeed been neglected, we would suggest that a 
permanent building be erected on the present site at Pierce and Rapelyea Avenues 
and Brielle Street as soon as possible. 
"Caldwell & Brittonere Sts.,- Elmhurst — ■ 

"The selection of a site and the erection of a permanent building for this 
section has been recommended by this Board repeatedly. 

"The children of this section are not within walking distance to the nearest 
school available and are forced to travel by trolley car and stage which is both 
dangerous and unhealthy. 
"East Elmhurst — 

"A three room portable building formerly used at Public School No. 17, ha* 
been erected in this section and while it is furnishing temporary relief only, it 
should not delay the selection of a site for a permanent building. 

"Heretofore a stage has traveled to this section to take the children to 
P. S. 92 and P. S. 15, and notwithstanding that the Local Board who have been 
over the field and understand the necessity of this stage and have so recommended, 
the Board of Education has seen fit to remove this stage. 



64 

"Action should also be taken to provide a permanent site and school for this 
neighborhood. 
"Forest Hills — 

"A permanent site having been selected arrangements should be made for 
the erection of a permanent building. 
"Forest Hills Gardens — ■ 

"This school having now been made a separate school, a site for a permanent 
building should be selected before the property is built up. This would allow 
the purchase of this property at a better figure than later on when new buildings 
may cover the site required. 
"P. S. 12— Winfield— 

"We again wish to recommend the selection of a site to provide for a new 
building which will be required when this section starts to build up with the 
opening of the elevated and the construction of apartment houses in this vicinity. 
"P. S. 92 Playground— 

"The vacant plot adjoining this school is necessary for playgrounds and to 
provide for an addition to this school which is central to the population drawn 
upon. 

"It is rumored that the owner intends to sell this property for building lots 
and something should be done at once. 
"General — 

"A year ago we suggested that the Public Libraries be located in the school 
building and as we have received no reply as yet, would therefore, like to know 
the position of the Board of Education on this matter. 

"A Social Center has been held at P. S. 89, during the past with excellent 
results as noted in the report to the Board. 

"Another social center has been organized in P. S. 16, Corona. 
"A general steady increase in registration is noted throughout the district, 
the total increase for the past year amounting to 747. 

"We would request that the Board kindly advise us regarding what action 
was taken on our suggestion that street in front of the School 14, be properly 
paved to assist them in keeping the school rooms clear. 

"The local school board is very much interested in the progress made in 
connection with the above items and would request that they be informed with 
the above items and would request that they be informed from time to time as 
to what action has been taken. Very truly yours, 

" , Chairman, Local School Board No. 42, Borough of Queens. 

" , Secretary." 

"School Sites and Buildings Required in District No. 42, New York City, As 
recommended by the Local School Board — 

"General Statement : This district comprises those sections of Queens Bor- 
ough known as Astoria, Steinway, Woodside, Winfield, Elmhurst, Corona, Corona 
Heights, North Beach, Forest Hills, and Middle Village. It includes schools num- 
ber : 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 11, 14, (17, 18,) 16, 19, 78 (12), 84 (8), 85, 87, 89 (13); 
92 (10. 15), 101. 

'"This section is connected with Manhattan Borough by the Queensborough 
Bridge; 92nd St. Ferry; the Astoria, Steinway, Corona, Flushing, and Calvary 
lines of the New York & Queens County trolley; and the bridge local service 
and the main line of the Manhattan & Queens Traction Corporation from 
Jamaica. 

"The Brooklyn Rapid Transit, with the Flushing, Metropolitan, and Grand 
Street lines, gives connection with Brooklyn. The Long Island R. R. to Penn- 
sylvania Station and 34th St. Ferry has stations at Woodside, Winfield, Corona 
and Forest Hills. 



65 

"Two elevated roads, Steinway-Astoria and Woodside-Corona, now build- 
ing and nearing completion, are almost entirely in this school district. They 
connect with the Queensborough Bridge and will give low fare rapid transit 
between most of the communities named above and the Boroughs of Manhat- 
tan, The Bronx, and Brooklyn. 

"Considerable residential building, especially of apartment houses, is under 
way, based upon the present transit facilities and in anticipation of the open- 
ing of the elevated roads. Manufacturing plants are coming into the district 
about the Bridge Plaza and thousands of employees will seek homes in this 
Borough. The actual operation of the elevated roads will unquestionably stim- 
ulate building to an unprecedented degree. 

"Specific Needs — Present conditions and the needs of the immediate future 
demand that school sites be acquired and school buildings erected, as follows : 

(1). Steinway — On the site already owned by the City of Pierce and Rapelye 
avenues and Brielle Street, Long Island City, a building should be erected to 
relieve Public School No. 6. P. S. No. 6 has 519 pupils on part time and is 
rapidly growing. 

"(2). Corona — A site should be acquired and building erected at Lake, 
41st, and 42nd Streets, Carona, to replace P. S. No. 19. The new elevated road 
on Roosevelt Avenue cuts across one corner of the present school plot. The 
running of trains within a few feet of the building will seriously interfere with 
the work of the school. 

"(3). Elmhurst — A site should be acquired and building erected at Cald- 
well and Brittonere Streets, Elmhurst, to accommodate pupils now transported 
by trolley and stage to P. S. No. 89 and to relieve that school. 

"(4) East Elmhurst — A site should be acquired and building erected at East 
Elmhurst to replace the present two-room portable building, to accommodate 
pupils now walking long distances to P. S. No. 92 and to supply the growing ter- 
ritory north of Jackson Avenue. 

"(5) Forest Hills Gardens — A site should be acquired and building erected 
at Forest Hills Gardens to replace the present four-room portable building, P. S. 
No. 101, and to anticipate growth of community. 

" (6) Forest Hills — A building should be erected on the site owned by the City 
at Colonial Avenue, Livingston and Meteor Streets, Forest Hills, to replace the 
present two-room portable building, P. S. No. 3, and to anticipate growth of 
community. The Board of Education has asked for $2,500 for alterations to P. 
S. No. 3, now standing on private plot. This money might better be spent in 
moving the building to the city-owned site. 

"(7) Win field — A site should be acquired and building erected at Winfield, 
north of Woodside Avenue, .and near Fiske Avenue, to relieve P. S. No. 78 and 
P. S. No. 12, which are now filled to capacity, and to meet rapid development 
along Jackson and Roosevelt Avenues. 

"(8) Playgrounds — Playgrounds should be acquired while plots are still va- 
cant, in rear of P. S. No. 89, Elmhurst, and of P. S. No. 92, Corona. 

"MICHAEL J. SHUGRUE, Chairman. 
"George- S. Ethier, Secretary." 

"February 13th, 1917. 
"Mr. A. E. Palmer, Secretary, Board of Education, 59th St. and Park Ave., New 
York City: 

"Dear Sir — Following is a report of Local School Board No. 42, Queens, 
covering the recommendations for the purchase of sites and erection of school 
buildings necessary in order to provide proper school facilities for the children 
of this district. The section covered by this district is connected to Manhattan 
by the various car lines over the Queensboro Bridge, ferries from 34th Street 



66 

and 92nd Street, L. I. R. R. to Penn. Station, and the new elevated system through 
the Steinway Tunnel, in addition to which there are three car lines connecting 
with the Borough of Brooklyn. 

"It is evident from the above transportation facilities that the section is and 
will grow faster than school accommodations can be provided and we are there- 
fore naming the items in the order that they are needed. 

"Item No. 1 — Site and building in the vicinity of Caldwell and Brittonere 
Streets (Elmhurst). 

"A site should be purchased and a building erected at the above location, 
which is about halfway between Public School No. 72 and Public School No. 89, 
in order to provide for the children of this section. 

"This school \vould take about 300 children from Public School No. 72 and 
and about 400 children from Public School No. 89, relieving both of these schools 
which are now in a crowded condition and on part time. 

"The children from this section are now conveyed to school by stages and 
trolley cars at a cost of approximately $3,200 per year, and as this means of 
conveyance is unhealthy and dangerous, the residents have been demanding for 
the past three years that some relief be given, but have been unable to gain 
any as yet. The Local School Board has investigated this section thoroughly 
and cannot even find accommodations for temporary quarters, and as the need 
is most urgent we recommend that something be done at once, thereby pro- 
viding relief not only to this section, but also the two districts adjoining, where 
taxpayers are also complaining for more accommodations. 

"Item No. 2 — New building on site now owned by City at Pierce and Rapelye 
Avenues (Astoria). 

"Although this location is not in District No. 42, the members of this Board 
wish to unite with Local School Board No. 41 in recommending that a building 
be erected on this property and thereby avoid crowded conditions in Public 
Schools Nos. S and 6, which are in District No. 42, and where there are almost* 
1,200 children on part time and double session at the present time. 

"The new elevated system now in operation passes through this section 
and no provision lias been made for the increase of population to follow, not- 
withstanding that recommendations have been made by this Board several times. 

"Item No. 3 — Building on City's site at Forest Hills. 

"It is recommended that a permanent building be erected on the site now 
owned by the City at Forest Hills which would provide proper facilities for Forest 
Hills, Sage Foundation and Kew Gardens, where there are now three separate 
sets of portable buildings with an organization that it not satifactory, thereby 
making necessary to pay for the transportation of children to other schools. 

"Item Xo. 4 — New Building for Public School No. 19. 

"Present school building of Public School No. 19 will have to be abandoned 
owing to interference by the elevated road which will start in operation in a few 
months and as the section between Public School No. 19 and Public School No. 
89 is to be developed into a large apartment house section, which is now started, it 
is recommended that a new building be built west of Public School No. 19 to 
take care of this new section and also the present section in the vicinity of Public 
School No.' 19. The present site could no doubt be exchanged for a new site in 
the location wanted. This work should be started at once as the real estate 
developments will proceed at a very rapid pace as soon as the elevated is in 
operation. This school would also provide for some relief at Public School No. 
16 and Public School No. 92. 

"Item No. 5 — Secure site and erect building at East Elmhurst. 

"The present two-room portable buildings should be replaced by a permanent 



67 

building on a new site at East Elmhurst, which is located at too great a distance 
from Public School No. 92 to have children travel to same. 

"The Taxpayers' Association of this section has called upon our Board 
several times demanding that they be given a permanent building which will take 
care of the fast growing section north of Jackson Avenue and thereby avoid 
the danger of the children having to cross the busy thoroughfare of Astoria and 
Jackson Avenues. 

"Item No. 6 — Site and building, Jackson Heights. 

"Jackson Heights is a section north of Public School No. 89 along the new 
elevated road and continuing over to Jackson Avenue. 

"The Queensboro Corporation owns about 4,500 lots in this section and have 
already built six five-story apartments which are occupied, and work is now in 
progress on a number more and have plans arranged to continue on this building 
to take care of the influx due to the new elevated system. 

"This development will be large enough to demand a school building for 
this section alone and it is recommended that a site be selected and building 
erected in the vicinity of Polk and Fillimore Avenues, between 20th and 21st 
Streets. 

"Item No. 7 — Playground, Public School No. 92. 

"This Board again wishes to recommend the purchase of the property in the 
rear of Public School No. 92 to allow for future extension of building and for 
playground purposes. This is the only vacant plot available in this section and 
can be now purchased at a fair figure in comparison to any property which may 
be selected'upon at a future date. 

"Item No. 8— Playground, Public School No. 89. 

"A similar condition to that at Public School No. 92 prevails at Public 
School No. 89, where vacant property can now be purchased adjoining the school 
for playground purposes and it is recommended that steps be taken at this time 
to purchase this property at this time rather than selecting at some future date 
property which will have buildings erected upon it. 

"Item No. 9 — Playground, Public School No. 16. 

"Adjoining Public School No. 16 is a plot of ground on which the frame 
building formerly stood. This property should be put in shape in order that it 
may be used for suitable playground purposes. 

"Local School Board No. 42 wishes to impress upon the members of the 
Board of Education that we have given considerable time to the study of school 
problems in our district, and have thoroughly investigated the conditions before 
making the above recommendations. We have tried to gain the confidence of 
the people of this community by constantly looking out for the welfare of their 
school children and recommending in advance that certain facilities be provided 
to meet emergencies that we see coming, but regret we have received very little 
encouragement from the Board of Education, who have not seen fit to adopt 
the recommendations we have made from year to year, or explained to us why the 
recommendations should not be adopted. We have tried to make the Local 
School Board the connecting link between the community and the Board of 
Education, by which the people of this section may obtain the proper school 
accommodations to which they are entitled; however, we cannot hope to retain 
the confidence of our people unless we obtain results for our efforts. 

"We feel that theirs is an urgent need for the improvement in school con- 
ditions, which we recommend and earnestly request, that this report may be 
given proper consideration by observing conditions as they now exist, and that 
you will advise us as to what action is taken in the matter. Yours very truly, 

" , Secretary, Local School Board No. 42. 

" , Chairman. Local School Board No. 42." 



68 

The Chairman — Mr. Edward Steinkey. 

(No response.) 

The Chairman — Mr. James Murnane of the Dutch Kills Association. 

(No response.) 

The Chairman — Or Mr. Henry C. Reed. 

Mr. Seidel — That is Mr. Riehl. 

The Chairman — On the list you have given me it reads Reed. 

Mr. Seidel — Mr. Riehl has spoken here, but the other people were to be present 
and will be here later to present some reasons along the same line. 

The Chairman — Mr. Albert Hennings of the Astoria Heights Taxpayers Asso- 
ciation. 

Mr. Albert Hennings — Mr. Chairman, members of the Committee, ladies and 
gentlemen. I desire, on behalf of the Astoria Heights Taxpayers Association, to 
present to the Committee to-night some conditions that exist at Bryant High School. 
The conditions at Bryant High School have been for a long time the highest con- 
cern of the people of this community. 

After long agitation, we succeeded in finally getting the Board of Estimate and 
Apportionment to make an appropriation for a new school addition. This appro- 
priation, I am informed, amounts to about $500,000, and will remedy most of the 
conditions about which we have heretofore complained. 

There are, however, some conditions now existing that, we think, require imme- 
diate attention and correction. 

The sanitary conditions are very bad. As cloak rooms, there are closets stand- 
ing in the halls along the walls. The few hooks they contain are wholly insufficient 
for properly hanging up the garments. In fact, so small and inadequate are the 
accommodations for clothing that much of it protrudes out of the closets upon the 
making it impossible to close the doors. 

Sometimes a class of about 100 girls have to change from school costume to 
gymnasium dress in a storeroom occupied by lumber and cast-off furniture. There 
are no shower baths for the use of the boys and friends on visiting teams after 
violent exercise. They have to crowd into a room used as a plumbing shop to 
resume their street clothing, and, except for the running water offered by the sink 
faucets, only eight of them in all, they must dress and go out in the street in their 
sweat and dust without the sanitary protection of a shower bath and rub down. The 
absence of gymnasium lockers results in confusion, inconvenience and loss of suits 
and slippers belonging to the Athletic Association, lent to members of the team. In 
fact, it is no uncommon thing to see students, both young men and women, carrying 
their gymnasium slippers along with their books to school each day. 

Bryant High School there are being held day and night sessions. Classes 
for both men and women, day and night. The rules of the Board of Education 
require that a woman be present at all times as matron in all classes attended by 
girls. There were two such women at one time. At present there is but one. The 
other has been sick and away for the past month and no assignment has been made 
for her place. 

There were also at one time three men to take care of the building, outside of 
the firemen. One of these men has been taken away and there are at present two 
men and a woman to clean the entire building. One of these men is partly physically 
incapacitated and walks with a cane, and, because of lack of help, nine rooms re- 
mained last week wholly uncleaned. Despite this shortage of help at Bryant High 
School, the janitor last Wednesday morning, while I was speaking to Doctor De- 
marest, was called to the telephone and requested to send help to Public School No. 
83 in Ravenswood. 

These conditions exist at Bryant High School to-day, and, in behalf of the 
Astoria Taxpayers and Business Men's Association, we ask you to give your help 



69 

and consideration to these things and see if they cannot be remedied. They are 
questions of sanitation and should be attended to without delay. (Applause.) 

The Chairman — Have you taken the matters up with the Board of Health? 

Mr. Hennings — Not yet. I was only informed as to these conditions yesterday 
morning. 

The Chairman — Mrs. J. W. Bailey, President of the Mothers Club of Public 
School No. 4, Long Island City. 

Mrs. J. W. Bailey — Mr. President and gentlemen of the Welfare. Committee, 
ladies and gentlemen. I come as a representative of the Mothers Club of Public 
School No. 4. I have very little to say, but what I say I want to go right home. 

We are addressing your honorable body at this time, hoping that we may con- 
vince you of the necessity for additional playgrounds surrounding Public School 
No. 4, Long Island City, and the advisability 

The Chairman — Pardon me, just a moment. Where is Public School No. 4? Let 
us get the exact location. 

Mrs. Bailey — Prospect and Crescent Streets, Long Island City. 

(Continuing) — of securing surrounding property while said property is com- 
paratively cheap. 

This building, school No. 4, has a legal seating capacity of nineteen hundred eight 
pupils (1,908). It extends from Crescent to Prospect Street, and the playgrounds on 
the Prospect Street side are a story higher than those on Crescent Street. The part 
of the building fronting on Crescent Street has a legal seating capacity of one thou- 
sand ninety-four (1,094). The play yards on the same side contain four thousand seven 
hundred eighty (4,780) square feet of space. This, as you will see, provides a little 
over four square feet of space for each pupil. We are sure you will agree with 
us that this is an entirely inadequate space for a playground for these pupils. 

On the Prospect Street side of the building there are eight hundred fourteen 
(814) pupils. The yards on that side contain eight thousand one hundred eighty-four 
(8,184) square feet of space, or a little over ten (10) square feet for each pupil. 
While this amount of space per pupil is more than twice the amount provided by the 
Crescent Street yards, it is less than the amount of floor space required to properly 
seat pupils in classrooms. In addition to the inadequacy of the space on the Crescent 
Street side of the building, those yards are shut in by a stone wall on two sides that 
prevents them from receiving a proper amount of light and sunshine. 

Unsatisfactory as these conditions are at the present time, they will be still 
more so when this locality is more thickly settled and it becomes necessary to estab- 
lish recreation centres in this school. 

The land that would be needed to enlarge these yards could be bought at the 
present time at a comparatively reasonable price ; part of it is occupied by small 
buildings and part of it is vacant. 

We therefore earnestly and respectfully urge that, while property in this locality 
can be bought for a reasonable price, your honorable body will take such measures 
as may be necessary to secure additional land for the enlargement of this site. 

I would also like to say that this afternoon we held a meeting in our school to 
make a presentation to our school of two very beautiful American flags and our 
Mothers' Club was invited to attend that meeting, and I can assure you, gentlemen, 
that we had about 15 or 20 mothers, and that was all that we were able to accommo- 
date in our assembly hall besides the children ; and I can assure you we were very 
crowded at that. You can just realize when I tell you that we have got to have an 
assembly hall as well, and another thing, our janitor service is very poor, very, very 
poor. We have not the men that we should have and that are necessary to keep our 
school in a sanitary condition. There have been complaints made and they are per- 
fectly right in complaining, the parents are, of the conditions, but our hands are 



70 

tied and we don't seem to be able to get the proper redress that we, as parents, de- 
serve. 

I want to file our report with you, and I hope all that can be done you will do 
for Public School No. 4. (Applause.) 

The Chairman — We will be glad to have you file your report with the Committee. 
Mrs. Annie E. Gray, member of Mothers' Club of Public School No. 4, Queens. 
Mrs. Annie E. Gray — Mr. Chairman and Members of your Honorable Committee, 
Ladies and Gentlemen : In a general way, my word is to endorse what our presi- 
dent, Mrs. Bailey, has already said : The lack of playgrounds and assembly space, 
the unsanitary condition of the toilets, the general uncleanness of the building, and 
the leak in the plumbing of long standing. 

I respectfully suggest as a remedy for the lack of playgrounds and assembly 
space practically all the things that have been mentioned by Mrs. Bailey. 

Second and third, the unsanitary condition of the toilets and the general unclean- 
ness of the building seems to be directly traceable to our janitor system of paying the 
janitor a stated salary and permitting the janitor to hire such quality and quantity of 
help as he most cheaply may, with consequent ill results for both pupils and faculty. 
The remedy for this condition might seem to be for the Supervisor of Janitors to be 
empowered to decide upon the help needed, and to pay separate and adequate salaries 
to the head janitor and the help. 

I understand the janitor has been known, outside of his salary of between $3,800 
and $3,900, to manage to retain $2,100 of the same for himself, which leaves a very 
small percentage for the help. This has been told to me on very good authority, but 
I am in no position to substantiate it in a court of law. That is the way it was given 
to me by a very responsible person. The same man, I believe, employs women at 
the rate of $1 per day, which, as you know, will not provide us with a meal in these 
days at the high cost of living. 

The reference to the leak in the plumbing of long standing; such a condition should 
be impossible. A committee on the care of the public schools should be empowered 
to act directly and efficiently in said and similar conditions. 

1 would also suggest that convenient toilet paper containers be placed in the 
toilets. 

The Chairman — Doctor A. E. Perry, District Superintendent. 

tor A. E. Perry — Mr. Chairman, Mothers of the Committee, Ladies and 
Gentlemen: 1 had anticipated that I would be here solely in the character of an 
auditor to hear what you and the members of the Aldermanic Committee might have 
to say in reference to the schools, and to glean from that such help as I might, for 
the better performance of my own official duties. I feel that as an administrative 
officer of the Department that it would hardly be fitting for me to address you 
voluntarily, either to commend the work of the Department or to criticize it in any 
details. I think that if I am to render any service to you or the Committee, such 
service would be best rendered probably by my readiness to answer any questions 
as to details that it might be in my power to give you information concerning. 

If I may say this, I want to say that, to me as a supervisory official, this meet- 
ing is a meeting of great inspiration. It is a meeting that is typical of the school 
meetings in the United States of America and it indicates that the Americans are 
jealous of the schools and of the service that is rendered by the schools to their most 
precious possession, their children; and I want to say, as an official, that my own ideal 
of service is that every question of educational policy should be decided, and in my 
own mind I try to decide them, should be decided solely on the merits as to what best 
serves the pupils in attendance on the schools. 

I think, if we hold that one ideal before us, we cannot go far astray in our 
administrative work. I am at the service of the Committee. 



71 

The Chairman — What have you suggested, or what have you to suggest, to remedy 
the evils that have been referred to here in the complaints of the several parties that 
have appeared before the Committee? You have some ideas. I know the Committee 
will be glad to hear them. 

Doctor Perry — If I might answer specifically, the complaints, I got in here a 
little late, and I did not hear everything, but I heard some reference to Bryant High 
School and conditions there. 

The Chairman — And conditions here in this school? 

Doctor Perry— I have to say, as to the Bryant High School, that my own duties 
do not go into the high schools. 

The Chairman — I might say that the President of the Citizens' and Parents' Asso- 
ciation of Public School No. 6 claims an increase in registration, and claims the pres- 
ent registration is 2,050 as against a seating capacaity of approximately 1,600. What 
have you to suggest in that regard? 

Doctor Perry — The Local School Board of District No. 42 

The Chairman — This school is embraced in that district, is it not? 
Doctor Perry — Yes. I may say my position has to do with Local School Boards 
in the Districts Nos. 41 and 42. You understand there are four Local School Board 
Districts in the Borough of Queens. The District Superintendent is assigned by the 
City Superintendent, subject, naturally, to reassignment, to two of those Local School 
Board Districts, so that my supervisory work covers half of the Borough of Queens. 
The Chairman — How many schools are there in that? 

Doctor Perry — In my territory there are 33 schols. Twenty of them are graded 
8-B schools. 

The Chairman — The others? 

Doctor Perry — The others, some of them also are branches of other independent 
schools. There are two high schools in the territory, but another District Superin- 
tendent is assigned to cover the high schools for the city, so I do not work into the 
high schools. 

The Chairman — You would not be in a position to make any recommendations to 
this Committee in regard to Bryant High School? 

Doctor Perry — No, except in a general way, as a member ex-officio of the Local 
School Board, about conditions in regard to high schools as well as elementary schools, 
but my assignment is administrative. My administrative office does not take me into 
the high schools. 

The District line between 41 and 42 runs between this school, that is east and 
west, between this School No. 6 and School No. 4. School No. 4 is at Prospect Street 
and Crescent Street. 

I heard two members of the Mothers' Association of Public School No. 4 who just 
preceded me in speaking here. The district line runs between that and Public School 
No. 6, and the problems of congestion that have appeared in Public School 6 and are 
maintained in Public School 4 and neighboring schools are problems that concern 
yourselves and local school boards generally, and as I am the inspection member of 
those two local school boards, I have considered that one of my chief duties has been 
to co-ordinate the work of the two local school boards so they might be informed 
in such a way that they might work together in the interest of this general community 
for better results in both local school board districts. 

We are right on the border line. Those two Boards some three years ago took 
action by way of recommendation to the Board of Education as to what disposition 
in their judgment should be made of the problems here. They offered the solution 
that seemed wise to them. I, of course, as a member of the Local Board, made recom- 
mendations to the Local Board which were entirely in keeping with the resolut : '~>n; 
that were passed by both of those Local Boards. We looked at the problem in this 



72 

way, and this seemed to be the solution, and I for one, have not seen any reason to 
change it up to date : 

The new Second Avenue Elevated road running out here to Astoria, any one can 
foresee, is going to bring an influx of population. Just when it will start, of course, 
no one can prophesy, but certainly when it does start it is going to go on the jump, 
just as it did in The Bronx. That means we are going to have this situation of 
congestion that appears here in No. 6, probably very rapidly accentuated here and in 
the neighboring schools. 

The Chairman — This will be a new Bronx then ? 

Doctor Perry — It will be perhaps a new Bronx, or possibly the people here will 
want to say the Bronx has become an old Queens. I do not know which. (Ap- 
plause.) 

But our analysis of the proposition is just this: Between here and Woodside 
School No. 11, which is the nearest public school in that direction, which is east, 
is a stretch of something over a mile, possibly nearer two miles. We saw that the 
trolley lines, which frequently are established in territory of this character, created 
very natural boundary lines for a school district. We saw that there are three 
trolley lines, the Steinway line, in front of this building; the Broadway line up this 
next street, and the Jackson Avenue line that forms the hypothenuse of the right 
angled triangle. Those three trolley lines form a triangle, and it is our judgment that 
provision should he made for the purchase of a site and the erection of a school 
approximately in the center of that triangle. That triangle is a natural physical 
school district, and undoubtedly will be before long settled in that triangle. That is 
within the limits set by these three trolley lines, and we fathers and mothers know 
what it means where our school children are crossing trolley lines when they go to 
school, 

I may interpolate perhaps the little personal note that I have two children now 
well into the high school, and I have always felt in my administrative work that if 
the public schools were not good enough for my children, then they were not good 
enough for any child in the City of New York. 

Now, I believe that this matter of a trolley is worthy of consideration. Here is 
this natural triangle; a natural place for the location of a school is in the center 
of that triangle. There is no question but what that territory is going to provide 
such a population to maintain a fully graded school in that territory. A large pro- 
portion of the pupils now registered here in this school live either within that tri- 
angle or nearer to a site which we have in mind, within that triangle, so that that 
would be a natural relief for this school, a school building placed there. Now, of 
course, in order to get a school built, and the City takes the longer to get a school 
building than to get a school site alone, inasmuch as the City has for some time 
owned this site we have heard of, between here and Public School No. 4, the Local 
Boards made the proper recommendations that while the site was being acquired in 
this triangle that a building be immediately erected upon the site already owned 
(applause), and that upon the completion of that building the pupils in excess here in 
this school and in a somewhat crowded condition in No. 4 could be thrown into 
that building and by the time that building was finished they would undoubtedly come 
very close to filling the accommodations of that building. 

In the meantime our thought was that a site would have been acquired in this 
triangle and that a building would have been in the course of construction, and that 
when that building in the triangle was completed, that the pupils in No. 4 who lived in 
that direction and who had been rather forced to No. 4, would then go back to this 
new school in the triangle, which would be their natural place for a school, and that 
by that time the elevated road here would have opened up this territory and that this 
territory would then supply the school on the new site. That was the philosophy 
of the solution offered by the Local School Boards Nos. 41 and 42. 



73 

As to what disposition of those recommendations has been made by the Board of 
Education, I think testimony has been offered here. 

The Chairman — That was a unanimous vote by the School Board? 

Doctor Perry — A unanimous vote by the School Board, both Local School 
Boards acting jointly on that matter. 

The Chairman — Mr. Wessman, member of the Board of Education. 

Mr. Wessman — I did not intend to speak to-night, being a new member of the 
Board, only from October, and not being familiar with the school requirements of 
this District 42, mine being 41, and even of 41 I am not yet familiar with all the 
details or requirements. 

I found upon entering the Board that no comprehensive study had been made of 
Queens. No one seemed to know the Borough as a whole, and its requirements. The 
Board of Superintendents have assigned Doctor Shallow to make a survey of this 
entire County, and upon its completion it will do much to straighten out some of 
the tangles that do now exist, of schools overlapping each other. 

You speak of Bryant High School, well, that is in my district. I have no control 
over the situation. It comes under the High School Committee. If there is anything 
that requires attention there and the Chairman of that Committee who read that 
report will send me a copy of that report, I shall be very glad to use my influence to 
correct anything that may be needed there. Likewise in the other schools. 

I have tried to possess and become familiar with the schools, the teachers, the 
principals, and have always been ready to give such time to the school work as may 
be required. It has taken pretty near four to five afternoons a week. I am willing 
to give it, and will give more, if necessary, provided results can be accomplished. 

The Chairman — Mr. Horan. 

Mr. R. Horan — Mr. Chairman, members of the Committee, Ladies and Gentlemen : 

The Chairman — Won't you come up here; please? 

Mr. Horan — You see, Mr. Chairman, I am kind of bashful, because I am one 
of the great majority of men that have not got the one hundredth part of the courage 
that the women have, who will go to the front and say they have a family and go into 
the Mothers' Club. Now, we — that is, the other fellows like I — we kind of dodge 
those issues and we always want to appear — I guess maybe a little single, which is 
not right, of course, and we have lots of children and we unload them on the city 
to educate them and bring them up and then if they do not turn out right we are 
very apt to say, "There is your educational system." 

What confronts us up here in this section is the situation in which even the city or 
any part of the official city cannot be held directly responsible. It is the outcome 
of a rural district jumping over into a would-be big city district of towns over night, 
brought about by the extension of rapid transit lines, and when these rapid transit 
lines are projected, then a great many of us fellows that have not got the courage 
to go ahead in school matters, we will sit down together and we will talk about where 
the cat will jump. Of course, when the cat does jump we are generally wrong, and 
this is what makes it so that we are in this present deplorable condition, as far as 
room for our children is concerned. 

This section rjght here has been away back a pioneer in the educational field, that 
is in a field where they wanted the best they could possibly get for their children for 
the least amount of money, and that was natural undei a public educational system, 
and when this old little school was built, back here, th?t was torn away to make 
room for that larger one, for this one first, and then for that one. Why, I know 
when the first one was built that we went around with lists trying to get 20 scholars 
to fill the room. 

Well, the Almighty has led us to prosperity, as far as population is concerned, 
and I think we have all done our duty. Didn't we, men? (Laughter and applause.) 



74 

At that time we did not have enough to fill a little four roum school. We got out 
on the job and now, of course, we are shifting this job to these gentlemen and the 
Board of Education. 

Now, the city has given us fine buildings here. No kick about that. They have 
given us a very good staff of teachers. No kick about that. They are piling all 
the children from all around right in here. That is the fault, because we have good 
parents here, and, of course, our teachers have had some pretty rough material, but 
generally it is all right. Of course, I have got to say that. 

Of course, when we get in this acute stage that we have to leave children home 
on half time, when our children get pneumonia because one teacher opens up the 
window and says the air is good, and the other teacher closes the window and says 
the air is bad, and we have to pay the doctor bills, that kind of hits at home and 
wakes us up, especially these kind of fellows that have to pay the doctor bills. 

What we need in this district is exactly what the other gentleman said before 
me, more schools, and the Gary system or any other system for trying to stretch 
this little public school a little bigger is something to use when we have no other 
land. When the land is all built up and there is no more room for new schools. 
(Applause.) 

Our earnest endeavor in this locality is to make it prosperous, make it so that 
the city can recover through taxation sufficient revenue to give us the best to do 
what we have got to have, the co-operation of the Board of Health and the city 
authorities, in making us more proficient in the rapid building up of these emptj 
lots in our locality. To do that you have got to do like old Pat Glason did, plant 
the schools in the lots and the population will come. (Applause.) 

I am talking to the gentlemen that are in the City Council, our Aldermen, a Com- 
mittee thereof, and they are trying to find out where the trouble lies, so as to try 
to rectify as much as possible the state of affairs. Isn't that so? 

Voices — Yes. 

Mr. Horan — Now, the more truth we give these gentlemen the better it will be 
for us. The mothers and the fathers in this district say that no matter how many 
school houses you build in this neighborhood they will fill them, and by filling them 
we are doing our part of the duty. 

Gentlemen, your part of the duty is this: It is your duty to see that the revenues 
of this city are increased. That taxation instead of being a burden will become a 
pleasure because of the large returns therefrom. You know yourself that empty lots 
taxed at any time, it is always a burden upon the owner, because there is no income 
and he has got to get the money in different ways, separately, to earn the money to 
tese taxes. In many cases it means confiscation. The taxes are not paid. The 
City officials cannot pay it and everything stops. To stop that stoppage it is neces- 
sary to put buildings on, and when you put buildings on you have got to have men 
to build your families, and our children grow very rapidly and they become families, 
and that is the solution for the City of New York in meeting the great bonded in- 
debtedness; that is, more valuable property to be assessed by taxation and the only 
practical way to do it is to produce plenty of school houses and let the people do 
the rest. 

I never saw parents yet that would kick if they had to suffer and starve to give 
their children an education, and the Board of Education and the people themselves 
who furnish the children are certainly one. Of course, we cannot do all the business. 
That is why we delegate it to gentlemen that are sitting here to-night. They might 
have large families, too. 

If your Aldermanic Committee will look into this thing seriously, look around 
here, here is a school overburdened with pretty near a thousand more scholars than 
it ought to have, and if the city regulations were followed we would have to rip half 



75 

the seats out, but where are we going to put the children? We cannot leave them 
home. It is against the law. 

If you send them part of the day, are you giving the children a fair chance for 
the future? Are you educating the children as you should, with all the vast wealth 
of the City at your command and it only needs a little level-headedness and progress 
of spirit to look into the future and make provision for the same. 

I know my 10 minutes are up, but you know I have a very large family and 
you must give me a little more time than those who only have two or three. 

The Chairman — I will give you two minutes additional. 

Mr. Horan— Now, Bryant High School, I have three children attending there, 
and as long as I can remember going down there, there has been one cry, got no 
assembly room, no this, no that, just one difficulty after the other, and this and 
that, and that should not be so. I tell you that, and especially looking over the tax 
bills and seeing what we are paying and seeing the improvement of minor condi- 
tions, but no adequate return for that outlay, it is discouraging. What makes the 
difference? Instead of having children through the high school in four years it 
takes six for some of them, and some of them never get through. Why? Because 
they have been robbed of the chance to learn during the time they were wasting there, 
and that condition is brought about by the circumstance of too rapid growth of a 
locality. 

I do not want to blame anybody for that, but I do want to call your attention to 
the fact of the rapid growth of this locality and urge your making future provision 
for the same. We do a lot of good things in America. We are very generous to 
every body in need at all times. Let us just for once remember the needs of our 
children. (Applause.) 

The Chairman — Mrs. Frost, President of the Mothers Council of The Bronx. 

Mrs. Frost — Mr. Chairman, Honorable Aldermen and Friends : I came over 
to-night not to speak but to listen and find out if I could hear anything that I did 
not know about the schools, and I hope you won't think that I am saying too much 
when I say I have not heard anything new, because I have known it for three years. 
I thought perhaps it had grown a great deal worse, but three years ago I thought it 
could not get any worse, and I see that my opinion has been upheld. 

I want to say on behalf of the Mothers Council to you to-night that we most 
thoroughly endorse your request and respect your judgment in your demand for a 
new school. (Applause.) It is the only thing for you to have, and as the gentleman 
from your district says, not only one but two. If it costs you a little money to get 
up a meeting like this, spend a little more money and get up some more, and that is 
the only way, friends and gentlemen, that you can induce our friends over at the 
Board of Education, I am quite sure, to listen. 

I have been going to the Board of Education for the last — I shan't say for how 
many years, for you might think I was old — and you know they have a lovely smile 
over there, and that is all we ever hear about it or see about it. 

I think it is splendid of them to be so patient and enduring with that smile 
when they see us all coming over from all the Boroughs. 

I am particularly interested in this Borough because I know a great deal about 
it, from Little Neck, Middle Village, Woodside, even before Woodside had a new 
school and was out at the end of the line. Some people might be astonished at that. 
.We begin to feel a great deal like the old lady with the shoe who had so many chil- 
dren she didn't know what to do, because they come from all localities and ask for 
help and for our endorsement, but I do know, friends, and I can say very frankly, 
that you will not get the remedy nor the help for now or for the future in any ade- 
quate system that is presented to you. I know that. (Applause.) And I know, I 
want to say to you, gentlemen, as taxpayers, ask for your school from this party 



76 

of gentlemen, keep at it and don't take anything else, and I will help you and the 
Council will help you, and we will all help you, and I am sure that these honorable 
gentlemen will help you, too. 

I thank you. (Applause.) 

The Chairman — Mr. J. J. Moss, Retail Merchants' Association, Long Island 
City. 

Mr. J. J. Moss — Members of the Welfare Committee of the Board of Aldermen, 
ladies and gentlemen : 

As President of the Retail Merchants' Association, of Long Island City, and 
in behalf of its members that have children attending Public School No. 6, I appear 
before your honorable committee to voice their sentiment, calling your attention 
to the unusual over-crowded condition that now exists in Public School No. 6, also, 
in my own behalf. 

I am a resident of this section for the past seven years; I had an occasion to 
watch the growth of this school from half classes until to-day over-crowded beyond 
its capacity; from the legal seating capacity of 1,500 to the present register of 2,050 
pupils. 

Particularly during the past two years, conditions weere getting worse daily, 
until in my estimation, have reached the danger point from a hygienic and safety 
point of view, and also from an educational standpoint. As it is next to impossible 
to teach children properly in an overcrowded class room, and on a part time system, 

In the past I have had four children in this school, and to-day, two of my 
boys are attending this school. The younger one. about nine years of age, is in 
3B class. He had his school hours changed repeatedly from early morning session 
at 8.15, to the present time at 12 noon, and from observation, I am convinced that 
a child's faculties are by far at its best during forenoon after a good night's rest, 
and he is compelled to waste these valuable three hours in playing in or out of doors, 
and naturally his mind is on playthings and not very receptive to study. This is 
but one typical case, and there are hundreds of others to-day in this school. 

I have tried with the aid of other parents and with the aid of the Mothers' 
Club, to have this evil remedied, having been in connection with others, on a few 
occasions, before the Bureau of Estimate and Apportionment; to lay our grievances 
before them, but still all they would tell us was that a sum has been set aside ap- 
proximately $100,000, for the installation of a duplicate school system. 

Now, from my personal investigation, I find that with the installation of this 
so-called duplicate system, all we can possibly expect to gain, is the accommodation 
of about 150 additional children, and for that increase the City is willing to spend 
$100,000, and compel our children to take up part of their time with other activities, 
which, in the opinion of all the parents, and also of any unbiased person, is of little 
or no value to our children. 

Granting, for sake of argument, that the duplicate system would remedy condi- 
tions temporarily — and it is an ideal system, why then, have none of the Board of 
Education, Board of Superintendents or the Board of Principals, ever advocated it? 

The special activities outlined in the duplicate school system would not give us 
the measure of relief we are seeking in Public School No. 6, with the constant in- 
crease of population in this section. The only solution in relieving the over-crowded 
conditions of this school so as to enable our children to enjoy a regular and full time 
school session in the erection of a new school building in the nearby section of ground 
owned by the City, and which is laying dormant for the past fifteen years. 

I therefore hope and pray that your Honorable Committee will give this your fair 
and unbiased consideration, and that you may recommend that we get the necessary re- 
lief that we are seeking in the past two years by the erection of a new school building 
which will accommodate all children which by right and reason ought not to attend 
Public School No. 6. 



77 

I thank you, gentlemen, and I hope you will do all in your power. 

The Chairman — Mr. H. F. Hilbrandt. 

Mr. H. F. Hilbrandt — Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen : I have not much 
to say, but 1 am just going to say one point, and that is this: In the last two or 
thre years to my knowledge, we had a chance to watch and see the conditions of 
the children as they must cross the street from this school during lunch hour time 
or beginning time and the time of departure, the overcrowded condition, with the 420 
or 430 odd over the legal seating capacity of this school, and I recommend that the 
only solution to remedy this evil is a school house, and on the grounds as follows : 

This present site, when the old site on which this very present building that is 
standing here today was erected, the people that had the working of it never knew 
that the conditions would be such as they are today. There is absolutely no place 
to get or crowd any more children in this school, as the conditions are already. 
If anybody would stand outside in the street and watch the traffic which goes up 
and down Steinway Avenue here, gentlemen, I tell you you would think for yourself 
if you had children going to this school, you would say it is no place for a school. 

I therefore ask your honorable Board when you make your final recommendations 
to the Board of Aldermen, I hope and trust that the recommendation will be to 
give us relief by erecting a new school building between Public School 6 and Public 
School 4, which is the same distance between the Woodside school and School 6. 
(Applause.) 

The Chairman — Mr. Joseph Bernstein. 

Mr. Joseph Bernstein — I feel anything I might say has already been covered by 
all the previous speakers and as a man who has children in this school, I might say 
the only recommendation I can see is a new school on the site which is at Pierce 
and Fourth Avenues. (Applause.) 

The Chairman — Mr. Robert Eadie, Principal of Public School 72, Queens, Dis- 
trict No. 41, Queens. (Applause.) 

Mr. Robert Eadie — Mr. President, Members of the Aldermanic Committee, Ladies 
and Gentlemen : We have, over at Public School 72 and in District 41, a condition 
which is the exact counterpart of your condition here. When this meeting was 
arranged I was asked if I would bring a delegation over here in order that our 
condition might be placed before you. Now, nobody has spoken of our condition, 
and as a member of the school and being responsible for a small delegation here, I 
do not think that I can go back tomorrow morning unless I let you know that our 
condition is quite as congested as the condition here. 

The Chairman — Let us understand. Where is Public School No. 72? 

Mr. Eadie — It is at Maspeth, and Maspeth is a little way east of the Brooklyn 
boundary line. There are three lines of communication through Maspeth from 
Brooklyn; the Grand Street line, the Flushing Avenue surface line, and the Ridge- 
wood elevated line, which runs from Brooklyn Bridge out to Flushing. 

The Chairman — What is your seating capacity there? 

Mr. Eadie — Our seating capacity is 901. We have 26 classes. We have 20 class 
rooms. We have had part time classes for the last IS years. We have now more than 
500 pupils on part time in our schools. 

The Chairman' — What is your registration? 

Mr. Eadie — Our registration is about 1,120 or 1,125. It varies a little from day 
to day. 

We have been asked to consent to have our situation improved by having the 
school Garyized, and I want to say here that if that was the right thing to do I 
should be very willing to do it. We are not chronic kickers out at Maspeth. We 
want what is best for the place. We want to take a view of the situation that looks 
on a little bit into the future so that when things are fixed they will be fixed right 
for some time. Our building is not suited as a building for the Gary system. The 



78 

proposition is to have 15 of our class rooms take care of 30 classes, 2 to a class 
room, and leave another room for our kindergarten. Outside of the kindergarten we 
have now 25 classes in our building. 

Just as soon as the sewers, which are now under construction there, are com- 
pleted, I am assured by real estate men in the community that at least 200 houses 
will go up right there and these houses are largely such houses as are now being 
built a little further over on Fresh Pond Road, and these houses are houses of 
three stories, with a store on the lower floor, two floors given up above to four 
families, and often a family in the rear. Now, if you take 200 times four or five 
families, which we shall have there inside of at least two years, why, the remaining 
two and a half unoccupied class rooms will not begin to take care of them, so that 
the proposition to Garyize our school buildings is not looking ahead two years, and 
even if it were done, it would not ever be a satisfactory building after it is done. 

I do not want to take up your time or the time of the ladies and gentlemen who 
have come out here to-night, but I do want to put our situation before you. 

Thank you. 

The Chairman — Do not misunderstand. The object of the Committee coming 
here is not to take up any specific school. We are taking up the general school 
situation in the City. 

Mr. Eadie — I understand. 

The Chairman — Of course, your complaint is as interesting to us as the complaint 
of Public School 6 or the complaint of Public School 4, or any other school in Queens 
or the entire City. 

Mr. Eadie — I just wanted to come down here and let you know what we think 
ought to be considered. (Applause.) 

Mr. Westfield — Mr. Eadie spoke of 900 seating capacity and 1,100 registration, and 
500 on part time. 

Mr. Eadie — Those are not the figures I gave. 

Mr. Westfield — I thought of course it had better be corrected, unless I misunder- 
stood you. 

Mr. Eadie — The seating capacity is 900. 

Mr. Westfield— 901 ; part time, 500. 

Mr. Eadie — We have 500 part-time pupils. We have 12 part-time classes that are 
using six rooms and the other rooms are of course having one class in a room. 

The Chairman — Is there any other person present that has not been heard that 
desires to be heard? 

: I am Chairman of Local Board. District No. 43. 

The Chairman — That is the adjoining district? 

: The adjoining district; yes, sir. 

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen : What I have got to say is not going to 
be very enthusiastic, but I think it is an occasion that calls for light, and I want to 
fTirow all I can on the situation. I am Chairman of the Local School Board of 
District No. 43, which starts at Flushing Creek, goes out east of Little Neck, the 
outskirts of civilization I suppose they call it down here, but we are quite a well 
populated community. I have been very much interested in what the problems were 
here, and I knew that something would be said that would strike a responsive chord. 

One was that the pupils of Public School 6 have been waiting four years for 
relief. The experience of our Local Board is that you have about six years more. 
(Laughter and applause.) About two months ago the Local Board of District 43 
went over its recommendations of the last ten years that had not been acted upon and 
that no official body of importance had taken care of. They found that although the 
recommendations are made only as absolutely necessary, that there are about thirty 
of those. At the same time, and it is part of the same proposition, the Board cuts 



79 

down its recommendations to the six most urgent that were absolutely necessary, and 
recommended those six in the order of urgency and submitted them to the Board of 
Education in time to be incorporated in their recommendations to the Board of 
Estimate and Apportionment, to appear in this year's budget. 

Of that list of six the first in the order of urgency was Public School 50 in Ja- 
maica. No acknowledgment, no action, no reference to any committee honored our 
communication in any way. 

No. 1, the first item, was not reported favorably. They are not contained in the 
budget submitted by the Board of Education, and as the conditions were very pressing, 
quite as pressing as those you have here, a committee of citizens of the district in 
the neighborhood of Public School SO followed it up by appearing before the Comp- 
troller, or asking the right by letter to the Comptroller of appearing before him and 
stated the necessity of this meeting. The Comptroller was referred to because he is 
one of the Committee on Education of the Board of Estimate and Apportionment, of 
whom Mrs. Ford is the Secretary, of whom I may say something later (Laughter). 

The Comptroller replied, and I think very properly, that an application for a 
hearing should not be made to him, but should be made to the Committee on Buildings 
of the Board of Education, and that he could not act on it until the Board of Educa- 
tion had approved. 

So the Committee then applied to Mrs. Mullen, who is the Chairman of the Com- 
mittee of the Board of Education and asked for a public hearing and on one day on which 
the Committee was meeting Mrs. Mullen gave the petitioner, the Civic Association, the 
right to appear, and when they appeared and stated their grievances, Mrs. Mullen in- 
formed them that that Committee on Buildings could not consider it until the Comp- 
troller had approved it. (Laughter.) 

Now, gentlemen, that is not a joke. This has happened within the last week. The 
Committee of Buildings, and that is one reason it is so fresh in my mind, and that 
is absolutely typical of the machinery they have for getting improvement in the school 
system. The Comptroller refers it to the Committee. The Committee refers it back 
to the Comptroller, so that the petition is not even put in. The Civic Association is 
absolutely denied its right to petition the Board for the improvements which it deems 
necessary and which the Local Board has approved by putting it first on its order of 
urgency. 

Public School 6, Public School 72 and Public School SO are but symptoms of a 
situation that is city wide, and, if you get a member of the Board of Education who 
is better informed, well informed of the conditions, informed as to suppose that 
children can be shifted around like sticks of lumber, irrespective of schools, you 
will find that the reason these particular schools are not granted relief is because 
there are so many other schools throughout the city that need relief, and that is true. 

If the City started in to correct all the conditions that need correction to-day, it 
would add so much to the tax rate that every locality would have criticism, and the 
trouble is the city has allowed the school business to get so far behind, and that 
need is pressing in every direction, and we will never find they are making the 
effort to catch up, and that is what makes the representatives of the school system, 
who, like the Local Boards, represent the people directly, so hot. There is no other 
word for it. If the city were now showing its desire to catch up and give every 
child in the schools a seat, as it should have, then we would be even willing to work 
and take what we could get, but that is not the case. 

The duplicate school system is put before us as a measure of economy; second, 
as a good school system. The duplicate system has not yet demonstrated either its 
efficiency or inefficiency. Personally, I have suspended judgment on it, and I think 
well informed citizens have, because, if the duplicate school system is a success 
in the course of a very few years, it will demonstrate it is a success. If it is not a 



80 



success, it will demonstrate it is not a success, but we criticize the Department of 
Education and the Board of Education and the Comptroller and the School Com- 
mittee, because, in the absence of a demonstration, they are willing to force that 
system upon the city of New York. It seems to me an insane thing. 

What business would take its most important function and put into the whole 
system an untried patent, for instance, and that is what this is, and they come before 
citizens like the Mothers Club in this school and tell them that they will give them 
the relief they want if they will accept this untried system. Suppose it is good. 
We do not know it yet. How can you expect the Mothers Club to accept a propo- 
sition of that sort? They know the traditional system. They were brought up, if 
they were brought up in this city or in this county, Queens County— I do not know 
about Manhattan— if they were brought up in this county, they were brought up 
under a system that has known the principle of a seat for every child in the school 
system and they expect that from the city of New York, and, to be asked by the 
Board of Education to take an untried and unproved duplicate school system, is an 
impertinence. (Applause.) 

This matter comes very close to us out our way, because we have had a good 
deal of communication with the educational authorities. At present, the balance of 
control appears to be clearly with the Committee on Education of the Board of 
Intimate and Apportionment, of which Mrs. Ford is Chairman. To throw what 
light 1 can on the situation, I should say it is absolutely impossible at present to 

iny improvement through the Department of Education, or the Board of Estimate 
and Apportionment, that lias not Mrs. Ford's approval. Whether that condition is 
one that should be or should not be, I leave for the Board of Aldermen to decide, 
but, as a matter of fact, I believe thoroughly that that is the fact. That has been 
my experience. 

The Department of Education is undoubtedly working out a very difficult prob- 
lem under severe handicaps, the first of which is that it cannot have its own money, 
and for the correction of the whole situation, what is needed is public awakening to 
the" fact that the schools are being starved and that sufficient money should be 
priated to give the new buildings where they are needed, 
tt is the best method that I can bring to this meeting. (Applause.) 
Chairman Mr. Sweeney, do you desire to speak J 

Mr! Sweeney—] have nothing to say, Mr. Chairman, unless there are some ques- 

tions \i'U wish to ask. . , , ., ■ 

The Chairman— You being the principal of this school you might have something 

S Mr Sweeney— The conditions in the school have been well represented by different 
speakers lure. We have, as they say, a seating capacity of about 1,550. 

The Chairman— And 73? . , , , »i t 

Mr Sweeney— And about 2,050 children. One item which we have perhaps that 
they haven't in the other schools that are now being discussed is that there are now 
being completed on 18th Avenue twelve six-family houses, and I am quite sure they 
are rented, each one occupied. Those families will average one or two or three chil- 
dren. They are not prospective, they are finished. 

The Other unit, or remaining twelve are also under consideration They are not 
large apartments, and I think that they are going to be pretty rapidly occupied so 
that we have in this school now 47 classes, with 36 class rooms, one of which is a 
kindergarten room, and as Mr. Hilbrandt said, in this crowded condition it is a big 
„ rol) ,„„ , ,,, serious problem. I do not think that there ,s any school in .Queens 
hat is so close to the business center and street car l.ne as the way we are njttere. 
re are a good many details. Of course, the problem of handlmg a school on 
the part of the teachers and myself is a very severe one and has been for two years 
and vet this condition is growing worse and will be much worse next Fall, and it this 



81 

thing is allowed to drag on, some action will have to be taken for a new building. 
If not, it will be intolerable. School No. 45 is sort of midway between Schools 45 and 
6, and No. 5 ha,s children on part time today. I do not know how many there are, 
but quite a number. I did not hear any one from No. 5 speak here, but their school 
is crowded and would be greatly relieved by a new building. 

The Chairman — Where is No. 5? 

Mr. Sweeney — About half a mile from here, at Kennedy and Grand. Before we 
get any relief, however, we will need three or four new buildings, and before any 
building can possibly be completed something must be done in this school. Today 
we have 47 classes. 

Under the plans as originally started, it would leave us 23 class rooms only, four 
of which under the old conditions in this building are not fit for use, because of their 
location and lack of light, which was taken away when that addition was put there. 
Half of the windows of each class room on the west side, underneath this hall, the 
light was taken away. 

The Chairman — This is the new portion? 

Mr. Sweeney — Yes. Those rooms were intended to be duplicate school rooms, 
that is, under this plan, to be used as regular class rooms. It would be barbarous to 
keep them for that. If they were used they would accommodate only 48 classes. We 
have 48 now. 

As these gentlemen say, if you have to spend $100,000 to accommodate one or 
two more classes, certainly it is a clear proposition to me that we could make many 
other improvements and there is what seems to be a very prevalent view that Long 
Island City has been neglected. For ten years Long Island City has not received any 
school accommodations. We certainly are entitled to them. 

The Chairman — In your opinion — I know you have been teaching here for 20 
years — how many children do you think a teacher can reasonably and properly handle 
in one class room? 

Mr. Sweeney — Forty; perhaps in the upper grades, 45. That would be the upper 
limit, in my judgment. 

The Chairman — Is Mr. Eadie of the same opinion? 

Mr. Sweeney — About 40 or 45. 

Mr. Eadie — Yes, sir. 

The Chairman — Any other person present who desires to speak? 

Mr. Irving Koch (Ex-Alderman) — Mr. Chairman and members of the Com- 
mittee on Welfare of the Board of Aldermen, Ladies and Gentlemen: I do not 
appear here as president of any organization. I come here as a plain everyday res- 
ident and business man of this school district, having lived in this immediate neigh- 
borhood for the last 19 years. 

During the years 1902 and 1903 I was a member of the Local School Board Dis- 
trict 42. During the years 1904 and 1905 I was a member of your honorable Board 
of Aldermen, and during my residence here I always tried to take great interest in 
our public affairs and especially school matters, and during that period I can endorse 
every word that was stated here. 

My friend from Mr. Flushing, the Chairman of the present Board, 
rehearses his experience. My opinion is that the members of the Local Board, I 
am sorry to say, have been, ever since their creation in 1902, a number of figure- 
heads, (Applause), and that is used as buffers for the parents or school communi- 
ties, I am sorry to say, these men that live in their immediate communities, that un- 
derstand, that know the needs of their community thoroughly, better, more 
intimately than any man living across the river, who hasn't any idea of our great 
Borough of Queens not being a dense built up city or Borough, but consisting of 25 
to 30 disconnected villages, and each of these villages has its problems, a great many 



82 

serious matters, serious things have been said about our public school No. 6, and 
I endorse every word in regard to it. On the other .side I am very glad my friend 
Horan tried to act as the village comedian and brought the funny side of this ques- 
tion to the attention of the gentlemen present. The building we are here in now, of 
which this used to be the garret, was erected in 1885. The addition here on the 
west side, fronting on 9th Avenue, was erected during my time when I was in the 
Local Board and later in the Board of Aldermen, that was in 1904, and at that time 
we certainly thought that it would remedy conditions for many years to, come, but 
three years after its completion the question of overcrowding and part time schools 
appeared, and ever since those conditions have been going from bad to worse. 

We have not been lacking in public spirit. We have not been asleep in this 
community. Our Mothers' Club, our men of the school community, have been trying 
again and again to submit the conditions to the attention of the proper authorities, 
the Local School Board, as well as the Board of Education over in New York, but 
we never met with success. We have been going back and forth from this town 
here to the Board of Education, having interviews with the Superintendent ; we have 
been going over there to the Board' of Estimate and Apportionment, and we were 
respectfully referred to our dear friend who is in charge of that part of the Board 
of Estimate. You know. 

The last time we went over there we were told when we called the attention of 
that lady and her assistants to the fact that within the next six months our rapid 
transit system would be opened and would certainly bring a great influx of people, 
we were told the city does not deal in futurities. 

Now, today, since the iirst of February, our elevated line has been connected 
with the New York subway. On the first of June we have been promised, and I 
hope it will be fulfilled, our elevated system will be connected with the Second Ave- 
nue elevated line in New York, and that means more and more school population. 
Thousands and thousands of workers, men and women, go back and forth every night 
and morning, that work over here in Long Island City and still live over in New 
York. Why can't they work over here and live with us? Because, Gentlemen of the 
Committee, I may say, as a real estate man, I do not think we could find ten vacant 
apartments in this town here today. Hundreds of cards we receive weekly, sometimes 
daily, and we cannot accommodate all the apartment seekers, That is the condition 
today, because building material and labor have been excessively high. The builders 
are discouraged to build at the present, but the demand is here and the buildings 
will come and what does it mean to our community? What does it mean for Pub- 
lic School No. 6, which is in the immediate vicinity of two of these elevated rail- 
road stations ? 

It will mean not overcrowded conditions, it will mean intolerable conditions, and 
the Board of Education and the Board of Estimate and Apportionment, they are 
blind to those conditions. They cannot realize, they cannot understand our local 
affairs here. 

Now, Gentlemen, the City of New York ever since the year 1908, as the facts 
have been brought to your attention a while ago, the city owns a site two blocks 
out, and six blocks west from this present Public School 6, and has been holding the 
site since 1908, not a site of 10 lots, but of 16 lots, and ever since we have bean 
striving to impress the proper authorities of the advisability and necessity of start- 
ing that school building. We know before the city gets relady, or before the city, 
from the time of passing the school proposition to the time of building a building, 
it takes probably two years. We realize it is late, but it is not too late yet. If they 
would start in now, by the time this building is completed, it would be built, and if 
they put up 24 class rooms they would need them. 

Now, instead of that, they have been offering us a cheap substitute, a soothing 
syrup, as we term it. They have been offering us the installation of the so-called 



83 

duplicate school system. They have been setting aside, or promised to set aside, 
the amount of $99,000 to install the duplicate school system. $40,000 of that amount 
was intended for the purchase of six lots, two of them adjoining this school building 
on the north, and four of them across the way, across Ninth Avenue. $40,000, gen- 
tlemen, for six lots. The highest they would bring is between $12,000 and $15,000, 
and I know it. (Applause.) 

What are you going to do with the other $20,000? Who will get that? If these 
men who consider Our financial problems in the Board of Education or in the 
Board of Estimate and Apportionment put such a high value on these lots, how 
much will they get for the $59,000 that they want to put in this building here to 
make it fit for a duplicate system? I suppose they will spend this $59,000 for the 
resettling of a few partitions (applause), closing a few doors and opening a few 
others, and then we will be told, "Ladies and gentlemen of Public School 6, you had 
yours ; you had $99,000," and I believe that the expenditure of this $99,000 would be 
a waste of public money, and nothing else. 

What could we get for it? A makeshift and nothing else. It would be an 
experiment of doubtful character, as my friend from Flushing has probably shown. 

Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Committee on Welfare of the Board of 
Aldermen : I hope the various speakers have succeeded in impressing you with the 
utter necessity of remedying conditions as to Public School No. 6, and I hope and 
trust that you will be able and willing to help us, and we will be most grateful to you. 
(Applause.) 

The Chairman — Is there any one else present that wants to be heard? 

Mrs. Alfred Eno — I happen to be one of those people whom the previous speaker 
or the one speaker previous to that termed a buffer by the people between the Board 
of Education and the people. I may have been buffeted some by the people, but I 
defy the Board of Education to buffet me. I believe our needs in Queensborough are 
great in some places, but the needs are infinitesimal as compared with Brooklyn, The 
Bronx and Manhattan. 

I do not know — I feel very much like the minister's son, very much out of place 
at this meeting. Right in the presence of the Chairman of the Local Board to 
which I belong I am going to say that I enjoy and like and believe that for very 
congested districts the Gary system is a good plan. * 

Mr. Bernstein — Who is this lady? Is she a resident of the Borough? 

The Chairman — I do not know. The lady asked to be heard. 

Alderman Collins — Proceed, Madam. Let us keep order here. 

Mrs. Eno — I am not coming here tonight as a representative of the Local Board 
of District 43, Borough of Queens, I am here as an individual and to show you my 
real interest in the school in the Borough of Queens. I am foregoing a very great 
pleasure in Manhattan. You will see I am in evening dress, and I was due over 
there three hours ago. I am absolutely interested, and I know your needs. 

Mr. Westfield has said he does not know the Borough of Queens, but a good 
many of you realize that I do know the Borough of Queens, and I know it well, and 
I know just exactly where you are congested, but I believe this, and I think that 
every member of the Local School Boards knows that the appropriations for 1917 
have been made and there will be no appropriations for two years, unless there is a 
bond issue, if I understand it right. That does not mean, though, to stop at all 
without activities. We must go on, and I am sure that the Chairman of our Local 
Board will tell you that I am working very hard for many improvements in our 
district, and I intend to continue to do so. 

I have here just a brief summary of one school. If I may be permitted to read 
these few lines I would be very gratified. 

The Chairman — Proceed. 

Mrs. Eno — And they are absolute facts, and then you may know for yourselves by 



84 

going to a Gary school. You do not have to take my word. You do not have to 
take these figures or facts. 

In March, 1915, there were 36,000 children in but two school districts, the 25th 
and 26th Districts. 

The Chairman — What schools are those, Madam? 

Mrs. Eno — The 25th and 26th, Bronx. That means there were 10,000 children 
without school seats. There were 25,000 school seats. In July, 1915, the work of 
reconstruction began. By January, 1917, 11 schools in The Bronx were operating 
on the new plan. 

These are the results of the plan in The Bronx : All children in these schools 
have been taken off part time. All children in these schools above the fourth grade 
have a six-hour school day. Below the fourth grade a five and six-hour school day. 
Every child in these schools has a school seat in which to study the three R's for the 
same amount of time as any regular school. 

Alderman Collins — Is that in the Bronx? 

Mrs. Eno — Yes. 

The Chairman — I happen to come from the Bronx. I did not know that those 
conditions were as you state there. (Applause.) I have lived there all my life, 
too, Madame. 

Mrs. Eno — In addition, there is a total increase of shops, studies and libraries 
from 40 to 125, or 212 per cent., 135 per cent, more children receive instruction in 
the following subjects after reconstruction on the Gary plan. The subjects are here 
and I am going to leave this with the Chairman. 

Mr. Chairman, I visited day before yesterday, School No. 45, in the Bronx. 

The Chairman — Who is the principal there? 

Mrs. Eno — Mr. Patrie. 

The Chairman — Oh, yes; that is a Gary school. 

Mrs. Eno. — Yes; it is the Gary schools I am speaking of; those biased and 
prejudiced from lack of knowledge, I should advise their going and seeing School 
45 in operation. You owe it to yourselves. You also owe it to the community, and 
you owe it to the school system in its entirety. 

I want to be perfectly fair; I am fair, I know the subject, I have studied the 
schools, not once or twice or three times, but I visited the Gary schools many 
times. I visited 89 and some of the other schools in the Bronx. We have only 
one in Brooklyn. The others are in the Bronx. I only ask that you will be fair to 
the school system of Greater New York. 

The Chairman — Madame, were you at the hearing that was held in Borough 
Hall in the Bronx two weeks ago? 

Mrs. Eno — No, not in the Bronx, no. I have been in Borough President Marks' 
Committee both times. 

Alderman McManus — From whom did you get this data? 

Mrs. Eno — This is the data gotten up by the Gary School League Association. 

Alderman McManus — You do not know that these conditions exist up there, do 
you? 

Mrs. Eno — I was in School 45. 

Alderman McManus — Not only one school; is that the only one that has the 
Gary plan? 

Mrs. Eno — No, in 13. 

Alderman McManus — Have you visited all the others? 

Mrs. Eno— Not all the 13. 

The Chairman — Any of the others? 

Mrs. Eno — No. 6. 

The Chairman — Is that the Gary plan, too? 

Mrs. Eno — Yes. 



85 

The Chairman — Why didn't you visit the others? 

Mrs. Eno — I have not had time to. 

The Chairman — Alderman Ferguson desires me to call your attention to the 
fact that when we visited Borough Hall in the Bronx, many, many parents repre- 
senting Public School 45 made a vigorous protest against — not against the present 
principal, because it was recognized as the fact that he was one of the best we have 
in the Bronx, probably in the greater City, and is a recognized authority on educa- 
tion, but the system was vigorously opposed by parents of children from P. S. 45, the 
one you are referring to. 

Mrs. Matthews — Can I be heard? 

The Chairman — No; this lady has the floor. 

Mrs. Eno — Thank you. 

The Chairman — You will be protected. 

Mrs. Eno — I do not need protection. I have been over in Queensborough in 
Suffrage work too long to not understand all this. 

That is about all I have to say on the Gary plan. I am very sure that if these 
figures are investigated you would find they are facts as I have stated. 

The Chairman — Are you a member of the Gary League, so-called? 

Mrs. Eno — Not as yet, but I hope to be very soon. 

The gentleman who preceded me spoke of the Gary plan as being a soothing 
syrup. I cannot think it is. It does not seem to be here. (Laughter.) It is not 
that I approve of the Gary plan in its entirety, if we could have sufficient schools 
to accommodate all of the children now, but we cannot have sufficient schools to 
give the children an opportunity and have a single seat all day. 

Now, if the Gary plan does give us an enlightened education, let us take it 
now, because we cannot do any better if that is the way we want to do it. 

Are you willing to let this go by? 

Voices< — Yes. 

Mrs. Eno — And not let your children be in school at all? 

Voices — No. 

The Chairman — There was no interruption while those speaking in favor of the 
improvement of public schools made their speeches. In fairness to the Chair and in 
fairness also to the lady now speaking, will you please not interrupt? 

Mrs. Matthews — Is she asking questions or making a statement? 

The Chairman — Please do not ask questions or make statements. Just present 
facts. 

Mrs. Eno — Those are facts that speak out for themselves. 

The Chairman — Alderman McManus desires to ask you a question, if you will 
permit. 

Alderman McManus — It seems" from the drift of your conversation that you are 
quite in favor of the Gary plan, are you? 

Mrs. Eno — I may say I am. I have seen it for congested districts. 

Alderman McManus — You just made a statement that you thought if they would 
introduce the Gary plan in the schools that they would take care of the city. Now. 
do you think if they to-day carry the plan into every school in the City of New York 
that they would be able to take care of such? 

Mrs. Eno — No, not at the present time. There will be 50 new buildings under 
the Gary plan next year, the work, study, play plans. I am not here to agitate the 
Gary system at all. 

The Chairman — If the Gary plan is such a wonderful plan as you have advocated 
it, why does it require so many defenders being under the pay of the Gary League, 
in order to advocate this plan, not only at this meeting, but throughout the city? 

Mrs. Eno — I cannot answer that, because I know nothing about the financial end 
or the payment of any of the Gary League people. 



86 

The Chairman — They come to me and tell me they are on the payroll of people 
who advocated this, from the Gary League. (Applause.) 

Mrs. Eno — I have not been fortunate enough to be placed on the payroll, and I 
don't believe pay in a movement like this would appeal to me, either. 

Thank you very much. 

Alderman Ferguson — Do you know one school in the city that is completed for 
the Gary plan? 

Mrs. Eno — 45 Annex will be ready in September. 

Alderman Ferguson — But not one is ready at the present time, is there? 

Mrs. Eno — Not the buildings, the actual school, no. Public School 89 in Brook- 
lyn was made over a year and a half ago. 

The Chairman — Even Public School 45 will not be entirely completed in Sep- 
tember, even with the additions now in course of construction. I understand it is 
not the completed Gary school plan until alterations now being made in that school 
are completed. That is the information that was presented to the Committee when 
we went and held a meeting in the Bronx. 

Alderman Ferguson — $750,000 have been spent. 

The Chairman — In order to Garyize that one school. 

Mrs. Eno — There was a gentleman over here who wished to ask me a question. 

Mr. Seidel — I would like to ask and have you confirm now the fact that you are 
Vice-President of the Gary League? 

Mrs. Eno — I have been asked to be, but I have not yet given my answer. 

Mrs. Matthews — Has Mrs. Eno any children in our school, or any of the schools 
of Queens? 

Mrs. Eno — Yes, one. 

Mrs. Matthews — Is it a school which is about to be Garyized? 

Mrs. Eno — No. It is the normal school, Jamaica. 

Mrs. Matthews — You haven't any in the elementary school, then? 

Mrs. Eno — No, I have not. 

Mrs. Matthews — You speak from that point of view? 

Mrs. Eno — I have, to-day. 

Miss Orr — I have been Chairman and Secretary of Local School Board No. 27 

I was among the first of the women appointed by Borough President Swanstrom 
in 1902. in Brooklyn. I was until about two weeks ago the Chairman Pro Tern of the 
Gary School League, and I was at the meeting at which I believe Mrs. Eno said 
she was not, at the meeting in The Bronx, and Mrs. Frost, as I remember, made the 
statement that for that one school of 45, $750,000 had been used, and District Super- 
intendent Taylor arose and in a very accurate statement told you that the $750,000 
had been used for the 12 schools. 

Alderman Collins — That was correct, as I remember. 

Miss Orr — And that $1,000,000 was used to change schools in the new Gary sys- 
tem, when $5,000,000 would have to be used in the old system. 

Am I not right, Mrs. Eno? You remember that, and some of the gentlemen here, 
that that correction was made, and one of your number arose and said, "Please 
give Doctor Taylor my time to speak," and you gentlemen, you hard-headed business 
men know that if $1,000,000 can take the place of $5,000,000 with the added advantages 
of the Gary system — for I am a strong pro-Garyite. I have seen Public School 89. 
I have not seen much of The Bronx, although I have spent part of the morning in 
Public School 45, Mr. Patrie's, but have made a study of the system and Public 
School 89 is the astonishing result. Part time is wiped out. 

Kindly ask me any question and I will take up the facts. (Laughter.) 

Mrs. Matthews — Have they solved the clothing problem in Public School 89, 
Brooklyn? What has been done about the clothing on the backs of the seats, as 
we saw it? 



87 

Miss Orr — That is a very pertinent question. Thank you. The children have 
carried about with them their coats and clothing, and I do deplore that. The lockers 
when I was in the school, about a month and a half ago, I think, were not ready. 
I think some of them were ready, but in the Gary school — I cannot understand why 
you are always talking about equipment. The Gary school system does not mean to 
carry around clothing. They are supposed to have equipment. Why not go to the 
spirit of it? I have. I have visited them as part of my duty as an official and I stood 
astounded. No crowding in the schools, and I was astounded at the self-reliance and 
the way those children took -to the freedom of action. Why should they sit like a 
ramrod? The new Gary school does give added facilities. 

Mrs. Matthews — Just how long is the Gary system in Public School 89, and how 
long has it taken to get lockers, and still they have not got them. 

Miss Orr — The lockers are not in. As a member of the Local Board would 
you mind going up to the proper Committee of the Board of Education and ask why 
they are not put in ? 

Mrs. Matthews — You say where you are — this is degenerating into debate, I 
imagine. 

The Chairman — We will not allow questions from the floor. 

Mrs. Matthews — Our point of view is that is one of the problems that has not 
been solved in that school during all the length of time it has been Garyized. 

The Chairman — There is another feature to it, but we are confining it to Queens. 

Miss Orr — Will you come with me to those schools? 

The Chairman — I promise you I am going to visit the Gary and non-Gary schools 
before this investigation is closed. 

A Voice — We do not want the Cary system. (Applause.) 
i Miss Orr — Why not? 

The Chairman — You ought to be able to answer that. 

Miss Orr — Why don't you want it? . 

A Voice — It tears down the foundations of the public schools. (Applause.) 

Miss Orr — I do not understand what the gentleman means, Mr. Chairman. 

The Chairman — I do not think we will go into this debate to-night. 

Alderman Collins — If somebody wants to ask the lady a question, ask it, and let 
her have an opportunity to answer it. 

A Voice — Has this lady three or four children in the schools ? 

Miss. Orr — No. My name is Miss Mary Orr. 

A Voice — Have you visited the parents of any of those children? 

Miss Orr — I have listened for protests, and they don't protest, but speak strongly 
for it. 

A Voice — How about lunch, one coming in at 11 and one at 12, and one at 1 ? 
(Applause.) 

Miss Orr — I can answer that. 

A Voice — I have three children in Public School 72, two of them attend on 
half time, and it is bad enough for one to come in under the present system at 
half past 12, and half past 11. The teacher was kind enough to change them, but 
with the Gary system it would be worse than ever. We would not have any time. 
(Applause). 

Alderman Collins — Would she be worse off under the Gary system? 

Miss Orr — No; because Mrs. Reuter says there is a positive arrangement for 
families so the children of one family will have the same lunch time. 

A Voice — That would be an impossibility. 

Miss Orr — She does it. 

Mr. Bernstein — Why should we have the Gary system when all the parents pro- 
test against it? Those are questions to be considered. 

Miss Orr — All the parents are not protesting against it. 



Mr. Bernstein — Nine-tenths are, I believe, as I understand it. (Applause.) 

Miss Orr— I disagree. I believe in Public School 89 half the parents have pro- 
tested and they are gradually coming around, because they did not know it in the 
beginning. 

Mrs. Matthews — Is this a meeting for Queens? 

The Chairman — Yes. 

Mrs. Matthews — Does Miss Orr live in Queens? 

Miss Orr— No; I do not. I live on the Heights in Brooklyn. 

: I understand this lady is a member of the Local School Board. She 

undoubtedly understands all the conditions of the schools. She says the Gary sys- 
tem would make it uniform with regard to children coming home from school. Are 
you aware there is a bill now up at Albany to increase the time of school children 
from 14 to 16, adding two years more to the school time? 

Miss Orr — I believe it is passed. There is a new by-law. 

: That is not the question. I happen to- be a member of the House. I 

know what I am speaking of. 

Miss Orr— Isn't it 15, not 16? 

— : Sixteen. Do you know the Gary system is trying to be worked out in 

second class cities now, and all the farmers and all the members of the lower House 
and the upper House are opposed to it, and that is the reason the bill is going to 
be killed? (Applause.) 

Miss Orr — I did not know that, but I know this: England is sending over here 
for people to come over and tell what the Gary system is. 

: We are not speaking about England. We are speaking about this 

country. (Applause.) We are only traveling under that one flag in this country. 
I just want to make a few remarks. I have been asked to come here this evening, 
being a former member of the Local School Board and a member of your hon- 
orable body. I had the pleasure while a member of the old Long Island City regime 
of having this building put on the property where it now is, in 1893, and I also wiU 
state 

The Chairman — I thought some one said 1885. 

— : In 1893 this building was planned and first went into the government of 

the city under Mayor Sanford. It was finished in 1895, at the end of the term. 

1 also located the property on the rear where the new school was put on, and 
also the additional property for Public School 4. So I know something about school 
matters. 

The two schools you are speaking of, in the Bronx, I happened to do a lot of 
work in those schools, No. 45 and No. 25, on Wendover Avenue, and I forget the 
names. The proposition before this Committee is this: The feasibility and the prob- 
lem of getting schools so that the children can be accommodated. The proposition 
in my estimation is to look up what the situation here is going to be. 

1 \ eretofore, we have had the accommodation of getting here from New York 
City, say, anywhere from one hour to an hour and a quarter, and costing from 8 
fu 13 cents, and, if you wanted to walk from the 92nd Street ferry, cost 5 cents 
to come across, 3 cents from the ferry, and you had to walk from the ferry up 
here. To-day you can get the same accommodation for 5 cents and get down in 
less time than you could. 

You can ride from Grand Avenue and Second Avenue, Long Island, to the 
Grand Central Depot in 9 or 10 minutes. You can get down to City Hall in from 
24 to 30 minutes. I have done it lots of times, since the elevated has been running, 
and so you can easily see what the congestion is going to be, crowding in here, 
after this summer. Just as soon as people find they can ride here in such a short 
space of time, you will find this place built up very quickly, and you will want more 
school accommodations. 



S9 

I do not believe the Gary School is going to do what they insist. What you 
want is more schools and you want them quick. The longer the School Board lays 
back, why, the worse it is going to be. 

This school site, as former Alderman Koch stated, in Surf Avenue, when that 
site was first taken, there were plans started to build a school at once. Since that 
five story houses have gone up there and they are all occupied. I think the only 
feasible thing to do is for the Board of Education, not alone to build on that site, 
but to take another site over here and to build on it at once. 

I endorse every word Mr. Seidel has stated and the drift of all that he has 
spoken before this Committee. I think it is a good suggestion and I think it ought 
to be adopted. 

One lady said they smile at you in the Board of Education. We have been having 
them up at Albany for the last three weeks and we see the President of the Board up 
there every day. I think if he came over in Queens and saw where the new elevated 
and subway and all that are going, and investigated the propositions which he is 
responsible for as the head of the Board of Education, I think he would have done 
more good than smiling up at Albany to add an additional expense of $62,000,000 on 
the Pension Fund. (Applause.) That is what it is going to cost you for the pen- 
sions of the City of New York for the teachers, and I will say right now that the 
teachers of this school, the majority of them, sent me a petition opposing a pension. 
(Applause.) Ninety per cent, of the teachers of this school sent me a petition; and 
not alone did they send me a petition signed by them, but they also sent me telegrams 
and letters and asked me to disapprove the passage of the Ellenbogen Bill for a pen- 
sion for teachers. They don't want any pensions. One teacher sent a long letter. 
She did not want any pension. They want more school accommodations, and we want 
to protect our flag. 

I think if you will recommend the addition of a couple of more school sites 
and new schools you will be doing a wise thing. 

The Chairman — The next meeting will be on April 19, 1917, at 8 p. m., in the 
Auditorium of Public School 93, at 93rd Street and Amsterdam Avenue. 

The following hearing will be held in Public School 84, Glenmore and Stone 
Avenues, Brownsville, and one in Bushwick High School in Brooklyn. 

Adjourned to April 19, 1917. 



MINUTES OF HEARING BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON GENERAL WEL- 
FARE OF THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN ON THE FOLLOWING MATTER. 

"No. 1242. Request of the conference of organized labor to the Board to hold 
hearings and to invite the Board of Education and city officials to answer why 
the demands for better educational facilities have not been respected." 

Public School No. 93, Amsterdam Avenue and 93d Street, Manhattan, Thursday. 
April 19, 1917, 8 p. m. 

Present — Aldermen Robitzek, Chairman ; Collins, Ferguson, McManus, Bassett. 
Members of Committee on General Welfare. 

The Chairman — This is a public hearing of the Committee on General Welfare 
of the Board of Aldermen of the City of New York in order to consider a petition 
presented by the conference of organized labor, the petitioners having filed a lengthy 
petition in regard to certain conditions that exist in the City of New York, as alleged 
in the petition. 

The Board of Aldermen has referred this matter to this Committee. This is simply 
a continuation of public hearings that have been held throughout the city, in the sev- 
eral Boroughs. 

I want to say before any speaker is called, however, that the object of the Com- 
mittee is simply to ascertain conditions as to the general conditions existing in the 



90 

schools of the City of New York. If there are any individuals here with personal 
or individual complaints, why the Committee does not want to take up the time of 
the Committee in hearing them. In Brooklyn a couple of weeks ago this Committee 
sat in Borough Hall and some one got up and claimed he had a $20 claim against the 
City and wanted us to take up our time with that. In another instance one of the 
ladies wanted us to consider certain complaints they had against a certain school 
teacher or principal. We are not seeking any such information at this time. The 
proper course is to lodge such complaints with the Board of Education or with the 
Comptroller's office. 

Another matter that the Committee desires that I call to your attention is the 
fact that we are not considering the Gary system, except as an incident to the peti- 
tion, but it has been widely stated that the Committee are considering the Gary system 
pro or con. We are not. We are simply considering school conditions generally. 
If the Gary system comes into the matter at all we want to hear you, but we are not 
considering that, but still people are rising and bringing in the Gary system. 

We are considering general conditions concerning the schools throughout the 
several parts of the city. Of course, at this particular hearing we expect that school 
conditions in this portion of the city, the upper west side of Manhattan, will be con- 
sidered as the paramount question that will be presented to the Committee this eve- 
ning, but I have a list of several that desire to be heard. The list that has been 
presented is rather lengthy, and therefore, we must, as we have been doing in the 
past, set a time limit. The Committee will allow each speaker 10 minutes. 

Now, I have a list here of those who want to be heard. I cannot tell from the list 
whether it is Mr., Mrs., or Miss, so when I call the name I do not know whether it 
is a man or a Mrs. or a Miss appearing. Please tell us your full name and also tell 
us whom you represent. 

The first name on the list is Boyer. 

Mr. Edward H. Boyer — I am Principal of Public School No. 87, Manhattan. 

Mr. Chairman and Ladies and Gentlemen : The fact that you are interested in 
our schools is proved by the climbing of those front stairs, which we have all done 
this evening. I have a very brief statement to make, and if I exceed a minute and 
a half or two minutes call me down. 

The Chairman — You are allowed 10. 

Mr. Boyer — I know it, and that is the reason I am going to give the other eight 
to somebody else. 

The point is just here: This west side, according to my personal knowledge, for 
I have been here since 1874, had its schools built for neighborhood purposes. I was 
a member of the West Side Association that picked out the various sites. There 
was a school in 58th Street. We picked out a school site 10 blocks north at 68th 
Street, on the ground that it was wise that children should not be obliged to walk 
more than 5 blocks north or south. Then we picked out another site and could not 
get it. at 78th Street; we got one at 77th Street. 

Then we picked out another one at 86th Street, but the Board of Education had 
already a sit at 82nd Street. Now, all this goes to prove that, as the buildings have 
been erected on these grounds, they were selected for a purpose, and that purpose 
was that no child should be obliged to walk more than 5 blocks to or from school. 

On top of that the Board of Education of the City of New York, prompted by 
the Board of Superintendents — now, excuse me, I am not criticising those gentlemen; 
I am in a position that no other man in New York is in : I am 72 years of age and 
I am liable to be retired at any time and they never found me out for 56 years of serv- 
ice, so they cannot force me out and cannot retire me, because they have got no money. 
(Applause.) Consequently I can say what no one of you or any other teacher in 
the City of New York dare say, that the Board of Superintendents when they forced 



91 

the High Schools girls who are put in the schools, in No. 9 in 87, in this school and 
in other schools, and now they are going to take away a whole school building and put 
the High School girls in there while I am obliged for the lack of room to double 
up my classes, two grades in a single room, and that is done all through my primaries, 
and it is done because they have forced girls who came there from the East side to 
the North River, and I wish they were where they belong. (Applause.) 

The Chairman — The next name appears on the list is Murphy. (Applause.) What 
is your full name please? 

Mr. Murphy — William H. M'urphy. 

The Chairman — Whom do you represent, Mr. Murphy? 

Mr. William H. Murphy — The Parents' Association of Public School 93, and 
others interested in school problems throughout the city. 

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen : All of the greatest and most profound 
scholars of the country who have qualified as experts in the question of the education 
of the young agree without question that one of the greatest dangers to-day facing 
our public school system is the tendency to get away from the ideal in education, by 
overcrowding of the schools and the necessary overcrowding of the class rooms. 

Doctor Elliott, Professor Emeritus of Harvard University, who is looked up to 
as an authority throughout the world at large on educational subjects, Doctor Butler 

and Professor Dewey of Columbia University, Doctor , of Ethical 

Culture School, and last, but not least, God bless him, Doctor Maxwell, City Super- 
intendent of Schools, and innumerable other authorities throughout this country, all 
agree that if we are to stick by our ideals, and therefore we must realize that this 
great country is founded on ideals, we all live for ideals, we term our country idealistic 
America, so that if we are to stick to our ideals, we must get down to the ideals in 
education. 

Doctor Elliott suggests that the ideal class consists of 20, and not more than 25 
students, and in the Horace Mann school and the School of Ethical Culture in this 
city, which approach more nearly the model schools, there are no classes of over 
30 students. At the West Point Military Academy many of the classes consist of 
but 16 students. 

Now, what do we find to be the condition in our own glorious city? I under- 
stand the average number of students in a class is supposed to be 45, which is made 
up of 40 in some classes and 50 in others, while I am told, authoritatively, in many 
classes there • are over 50 students, and in some approaching 60. In one school 
recently consolidated in Brooklyn I am told that there are 121 classes under one 
Principal, with a roll of over 6,000 students, which is a greater number than are in 
the entire school system of Gary, Indiana, with its nine classes. 

The Chairman — What school -is that, Mr. Murphy ? 

Mr. Murphy — That is a school that has recently been consolidated in the out- 
skirts of Brooklyn. I can give you the number later. 

The Chairman — Will you do so? Alderman Haubert of Brooklyn wants to know 
what school. 

Mr. Murphy — Public School 109, Brooklyn. 

The Chairman — What is the location of that? 

Mr. Murphy — Brownsville. 

The Chairman — Go ahead, Mr. Murphy. 

Mr. Murphy — Mr. Chairman, the tendency in our educational system should be 
to give as much individualism in the study as is possible. You will all realize it is 
wholly impossible for a teacher having to come in contact with 50 or 60 children to 
give an individual effort, particularly to the backward students, who may for various 
reasons be unable to keep up with the classes. 

The Parents' Association hope and trust that if this investigation accomplishes 



92 

nothing else, it will have the result of accomplishing the closing up of these classes 
which are overcrowded to that extent that individual classes may be established for 
the overflow. 

We understand that one of the reasons given or assigned for inadequate school 
accommodations in New York is the inability of the Board of Estimate to provide 
the necessary funds. On this question I would refer to the report of Doctor Maxwell 
for the year 1915, wherein he states : 

The Chairman — Where is that contained? 

Mr. Murphy — In the 17th Annual Report of the City Superintendent of Schools. 

"The lack of adequate school accommodations is deplorable. Last year we had 
almost the largest, if not the largest, increase in school population in the history of 
our city, yet no money was granted to buy new sites or to commence new buildings. 
As I have pointed out, the lack of school accommodations is already beginning to tell 
adversely on the attainments of students in high school. There is only too good 
reason to believe that the lack of elementary school accommodation is having a 
similar effect on the attainments and training of children in the elementary schools. 
New York is the richest city in the country and the largest city in the world, yet 1 
venture to assert that there is no other large city in this country in which the school 
accommodations are so inadequate to meet the demands made upon them. 

"The city is pouring money lavishly into schemes for material developments, or, 
which comes to the same thing in the end, is using its credit to support these schemes. 
To stop spending a suitable amount each year for building school houses in a popu- 
lation already advancing by leaps and bounds is a policy." 

That is the report of Doctor Maxwell, who, for 35 years' has given us his best 
efforts as a teacher and school superintendent of schools of New York City. 

One hundred and forty-two years ago tonight the battle of Lexington was a 
matter of history. Our forefathers when they laid down the foundation for this 
country made it a proper question for consideration that the child shall be taken up 
by the State and taught at public cost the rudiments of knowledge, at least the rudi- 
ments of art and science. 

How do we propose to do this, Mr. Chairman? By crowding them into a class 
room, 50 or 60, where there is such adequate accommodations for 30? Will any one 
suggest that the desires of our forefathers will be carried out under such a propo- 
sition? That there is anything ideal in robbing the children of that which is their 
own? 

Ralph Waldo Emerson, justly acknowledged as the most celebrated of American 
philosophers 

The Chairman — Alderman McManus desires to ask a question. 

Alderman McManus— How many pupils. Mr. Murphy, do you think a teacher is 
capable of taking care of? 

Mr. Murphy — If the Alderman believes we have to submit that question to experts, 
Doctor Elliott, Professor Emeritus of Harvard University, says it is absolutely im- 
possible for a teacher to give proper attention to more than thirty, and do it right. 
So, while he agrees with Doctor Elliott, suggests that under no circumstances in the 
public schools of New York City should there be a register of more than 40. He 
goes 25 per cent, better, but does not suggest that you get the best results by teach- 
ing 40. Doctor Elliott insists that it is mentally and physically impossible for a teacher 
to give proper effort to more than 30. 

Alderman McManus — The reason I asked that question is when I went to public 
school we used to have 60 and 70 in one class, and I do not know whether the teacher 
was capable of attending to that number of pupils. 

Mr. Murphy — When I went to public school, and I hold that honor, for my 
alma mater is the public school of New York, we did not have over 35. 

Alderman McManus — That is long before my time, I guess. 



93 

M.:. Murphy — But the question of education must be left to those who have given it 
their life study, who have made of it an expert question. 

Alderman McManus — That is the reason I asked you. I thought you were well 
versed in thai. 

Mr. Murphy — Mr. Emerson in his Essay on Education tells us that the destiny of 
this country was decided at the start when, at the planning of the Colonies, the initial 
step was taken, namely: "That che poor man, whom the law does not allow to take 
an ear of corn when starving nor a pair of shoes for his freezing feet, is allowed to 
put his hands into the pocket of the rich and say, 'y° u shall educate me, not as you 
will, but as I will,' " and that is the fundamental principle of education. 

If we agree with this recent, very sensible revolution in Russia, which was carried 
on by educated men, in a country which is unfortunate in not being able to boast of 
public schools, we must admit that the scholar is indispensable to the republic and to 
the commonwealth of man ; and if we allow these precedents, then I hold that it is 
our duty to so conduct our educational functions that the children will receive always 
the best under the most advantageous circumstances. (Applause.) 

The Chairman — The next name on the list is Rothschild. What is your full 
name? 

Mr. David Rothschild — David Rothschild. 

The Chairman — Whom do you represent? 

Mr. David Rothschild — I represent the League of the Parents' Association of the 
18th District, and am President of the Parents' Association of this school. 

I was asked to speak against the duplicate school plan, Mr. Chairman, and that is 
more commonly known as the Gary plan. Now, if you don't hear me on that — 

The Chairman — Oh, yes, I haven't restricted you from speaking on either side. 
I say that is merely an incident of the investigation. 

Mr. Rothschild — All right. Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Committee, and 
Ladies and Gentlemen : 

As President of the League of Parents' Associations of the 18th School District 
and President of the Association of Parents of Public School 93, we wish to go on 
record as being opposed to the duplicate school plan, or commonly known as the Gary 
system. 

Our reasons are as follows : We do not feel that in the interest of economy a 
system should be introduced into the public schools of New York that has not yet 
proven its worth in any of the large cities (Applause.) 

We all know that the Gary system, or the duplicate school plan, has not been 
accepted in any Class A city throughout this country. Different cities have made small, 
some possibly larger, experiments with the duplicate school system, but in no city where 
it has been tried have they been able to transplant the Gary system from Gary to the 
city which gave it a trial. If that holds good in large cities, that the Gary plan is not 
suitable for cities of Class A rating, surely that holds good in our city, and therefore I 
repeat that in the interests of economy we should not spend any sum of money where 
we do not know whether we are going to get our money's worth; and when we keep 
on spending money, Mr. Chairman, for Gary plants for making physical changes in 
Gary schools, we who have made some small study of the matter favor a direction 
that we will spend additional money to make other changes. (Applause.) 

We speak in this positive manner because the association of which I have the 
honor to be the Chairman had a very lively debate on the night of December 8th, 
1915. At that debate Mrs. Fernandez, Mr. Worth's secretary, Mrs. Rohr, of the Gary 
school in Brooklyn, I think it is 89, I am not sure, and Mr. Knutt, of the Public School 
Department, of Public Education Association, spoke for the Gary plan. 

Principal of Public School 64, and Mr. Metcalfe, of The Globe, spoke against it. 
Our association was of an open mind. We did not claim that we knew anything about 
the Gary system. We were not for or we were not against it, but at a subsequent 



94 

meeting a resolution was passed. Copies of the resolution was sent to the Board of 
Education, to the Board of Estimate and to the Board of Superintendents. We never 
had the courtesy of an acknowledgment of those resolutions, and if I may, Mr. Chair- 
man, I should like to read the resolutions. 

"At a regular meeting on January 16, held at the school house, P. S. 93, the 
following resolution was adopted : 

"Resolved, That the Parents' Association of Public School 93 send a com- 
munication to the Board of Superintendents requesting a public hearing before 
any report is by them to the Board of Education relative to the proposed 
extension of the Gary school organization; and be it further 

"Resolved, That this Association request a public hearing from the Board of 
Education before they take any final action relative to the proposed extension of 
the Gary school organization ; and be it further 

"Resolved, That this Association request the Board of Estimate to immediately 
grant to the Board of Education the $5,000,000 which they have agreed to give to 
the Board of Education if they would Garyize the schools of New York City, 
not, however, for Garyizing the schools, but for the purpose of experimenting 
with the Gary plan in a few schools and experimenting with the Ettinger plan 
in a like number of schools, and for the further purpose of general experimenting 
and school betterment, so that at the end of a given period, say about two years. 
the Board of Education can' take what is best from all the different plans 
experimented and so create a plan suitable to New York conditions." 
This is a certified copy from the original written resolution. 
The Chairman — File that. 
Mr, Rothschild— All right. 
(Filed.) ■ 

I say we got no answer from those resolutions from the Board of Education, the 
Board of Estimate, or from the Board of Superintendents. 

Now, the Gary plan cannot be introduced into the City of New York in its 600 
odd elementary schools at a cost of $6,000,000, and, gentlemen, from practical knowl- 
edge, it is going to cost the City of New York nearer $20,000,000, and then they have 
something which they don't know whether they can use or not to advantage. It is 
absolutely necessary for the Board of Education to look into the local needs; what 
is good for the 18th School District may not apply to the 17th, and what is good 
for the 17th might not do for the 18th. 

The Chairman— What school district is this, Mr. Rothschild? 
Mr. Rothschild — This is the 18th. We are no better, expect no favors, but we 
want at least to be treated as well. 

In the 18th School District to-day there exists what might be termed ideal hous- 
ing conditions among school houses in the City of New York. We have no con- 
gestion. Gentlemen — I say this without fear of being contradicted — the Board of 
Education is doing everything possible to create congestion, for the purpose solely of 
giving them an excuse to Garyize the schools in this district. (Applause.) 

In the annual budget of the Board of Education they had a sum of money 
appropriated to change Public School 54, situated at 104th Street and Amsterdam 
Avenue, ami to create in that school a duplicate school system. I do not know why 
they changed their minds. They withdrew that appropriation. If we go on this 
way, we are satisfied as we are here. They are about to take one of our elementary 
schools away at 101st and 102d Streets. There is no more right, there is no more 
reason, for them to take that school than there is for them to introduce their Gary 
system into this school building to-morrow morning. The only object of their taking 
that school is to give them an excuse to introduce the duplicate school plan, which is 
objectionable to the rank and file of the parents, and they after all know, or ought to 



95 

know, what is best for the children. There is a school commissioner who thinks 
parents do not know what is well and best for their children. Well, we would like 
to tell that school commissioner, and are very glad to tell your Committee, that all 
the wisdom is not centered in that one school commissioner, and when you make your 
report, we ask you now to cut out the Gary plan until you find out whether it is good 
or not, and there is no one man in New York who can go up to-day and say Gary is 
practiced in Gary and is good for New York, because I will let you into a secret : 
They found out Gary is no good for Gary, and they are changing that. (Applause.) 

The Chairman — The next name is Mulligan. What is your full name, and 
whom do you represent? 

Mr. John Mulligan — My name is John Mulligan, Chairman of Local School 
Board of District No. 10. 

Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Committee, and Ladies and Gentlemen : 
I do not intend to talk very long. I am going to give you one of our annual reports 
that we have been sending to the Board of Education for eight years. 

We purchased a site in 20th Street and 21st Street, between 8th and 9th Avenues, 
some nine years ago. We have shown by eight annual reports a clear saving of 
$30,000 a year. The newest school that we have in the district is only 47 years old, 
and some of the schools there are not built for school purposes. 

We thought the district itself, the taxes are high there, and taxation without 
representation is hardly fair, and we thought this, and we think still, because of 
the Board of Superintendents, they agreed unanimously, the Board of Education 
unanimously, and the Board of Estimate and Apportionment unanimously, and took 
title to the property before it was condemned, to show the necessity of it. 

However, after nine years we have been going along and this report shows this : 
Shows the actual loss in' every detail, shows the. cost of the building, and we in- 
tended to turn over to them at least $600,000 of property — we put it in here moderately, 
it would be $700,000 of property— and all we asked was $450,000 to build a school. 

What I did want, and what I would like is this, and the people down on the 
West Side would like, that the Board of Education in making a report, that they 
would pass a resolution recommending the erection of that school, and when the in- 
dividual members of the Board of Education read this report they will think it is 
a proper question. (Applause.) 

The Chairman — Mrs. Sophia M. Loebinger, President of the Parents' Association 
of Public School No. 186. Where is that? 

Mrs. Sophia M. Loebinger — 145th Street, near Amsterdam Avenue. 

I would like to say, gentlemen, that what we know from investigations of the 
present system of education in our city, that we find it a great menace, nothing 
short of disaster to this community in the near future. I must say that I would 
only class it as a wasting disease- today which our educational organism is under- 
going, and I might diagnose that disease in very plain terms as an educational tuber- 
culosis. The system of education as we are having at the present time forebodes 
nothing but disaster, as I said. 

Today we are celebrating a wonderful day : "Wake up America." I say this 
evening we are celebrating a wonderful night. It is "Wake up New York City." 
(Applause.) 

We must wake up from our Rip Van Winkle sleep, gentlemen, and play the, 
situation as it is, and not play the "ostrich" game. 

My experience is as follows : 

Visiting some of our model schools during the winter, I find that there is not 
sufficient coal for heating the schools properly. The boilers have been cut out. 
Children cold and teachers freezing. The ventilating apparatus in the large schools 
is not in operation. 



96 

Upon asking why that is the case I was told, "Not enough coal to run it. No 
money." 

The supply closets in the schools which I have visited and which I dared to look 
into, were virtually empty ; small scraps of paper being used and picked up, which is 
good economy, indeed, but not so good for the children when they are supposed to 
do good writing. 

Teachers in certain schools, particularly the teachers in the schools for the merely 
backward, who are wisely separated from the absolutely and mentally defective 
boys, the incurables, who are doing the most marvelous work in restoring these boys 
to real respected and moral members of society, have to put their hand into their own 
pocket to provide the necessities. Is that right? Gentlemen, I don't think so. 

Children in kindergarten schools I have visited had their clothes on; the little 
tots cold and shivering, and the teachers had wraps on, lips blue and hands cold. 
Not cold enough to supply adequate heating. 

We have other conditions in schools where special teachers for special subjects 
are placed in graded schools on other subjects. Is that proper economy? 

Let us look at the other side of the model. Let us go to the waste of money and 
falsity of the statement of economy, when we come to the lavish expenditure for ex- 
perimental purposes, with absolutely no result at the present time, at the sacrifice cf 
the welfare of the future citizens, the children of the present day, the so-called du- 
plicate system, or call it what you may, an absolute farce, so far as I can see; and the 
principal of the latest model duplicate school, our present administration pet. is 
School No. 45 in The Bronx, and as he himself told me and another lady on com- 
mittee visiting yesterday, that while the school is delightful, it may require five years 
before it is brought to a certain plane of a certain degree of perfection, and it may 
take 20 years. 

Gentlemen, what is the future of the future citizens that are now the pupils in 
those schools? 

The condition which I have seen does not forebode anything but disaster. The 
constant moving about of the children in these duplicate system schools, the constant 
wandering about, the waste of time thereby, the spread of the germs of disease, the 
noise of the crowd outside on the street when the children are supposed to con- 
centrate inside, is something which is not going to bring about satisfactory results 
for this community. 

We sec, gentlemen, that something must be done. There must be a decided 

ge. Our Mayor holds the situation in his hands, as he controls the Board of Edu- 

ii. and when we find fault with certain conditions we are told "Go to the Board 
oi Education." That is all wrong, gentlemen. The Board of Education does noth- 
nly as it is told to do by the Mayor, or as they feel they can do to please the 
Mayor. (Applause.) 

I would state, gentlemen of this investigating committee also, I would ask a 
question. I think I may be permitted to do that. Our Mayor who is bringing about 
new fads and experiments at great expense to this community, and saving in a way 
on another hand in the regular sense, I want to ask now, I want to ask, and I want 
to have a response, positively from you, what warrants our Mayor doing a thing 
of that kind without the consent of the people who are taxed? 

I want to ask another question: How many of our public schools has this Mayor 
visited and for how long a time, that he is competent to judge of the needs? 

I want to ask whether the Mayor has visited any regular public schools and for 
how long? Whether for any longer time than simply to say, "Good morning'' to 
the Principal, and say a few nice words at the opening of school. Say, "Thank you' 
Lovely," and then go home. 

Has he spent a day there to see what is going on? Has he gone there during 
daily service, as we have done? Did he question the teachers? 



97 

Now, gentlemen, I am satisfied that we should practice economy. Every good 
mother, every housekeeper, every man in the community must today practice 1 econ- 
omy, but I want to know whether it is proper to start economy in education ? We 
are shouting preparedness. Yes, we want preparedness. We are unprepared, but 
how are we unprepared to meet emergencies? We can never have domestic prepared- 
ness, economic preparedness, nor military preparedness, without the fundamental pre- 
paredness of education. (Applause.) 

We must have the foundation, and then we are all right. We can built up on 
that, but without that foundation we are pretty wabbly, parades or no parades. Give 
us educational preparedness and I will assure you you will have every oth"r kind 
of preparedness that will make for this community what you expect it to be, a won- 
derful community, a pride to the country and a pride to our State. There are con- 
ditions in our public schools, gentlemen, that I want to call your attention to. I want 
to ask you, as public spirited men, if you think it is fair it should be vested in the. 
principal of a school to rate a teacher, so that if he desires to rate a teacher "C", if he 
has any grudge against that teacher, or wishes to have that teacher transferred, he 
can rate that teacher "C" without the right of that teacher to redress, and thus deprive 
that teacher of the possibility of having a livelihood by serving in evening schools. 
That is all wrong. We protest against such autocratic rulings of the Board of 
Education. We protest against the condition at the present time obtaining. 

We want our children that visit the public schools to have a seat. Every child 
that visits the public schools should have a seat in the public schools, and we demand 
5 hours school time, regular school time for every child that visits our public schools. 
(Applause.) 

Now, gentlemen, about the duplicate plan. My experience, I will assure you, 
that the first step as men that represent the citizens and have the welfare of our com- 
munity at stake to prevent disastrous epidemics this summer, or in the future, look 
to your public schools first. There is where the seeds, the germs of disease are 
being stirred up. Go to the duplicate school. You find there, if it is on a rainy 
or damp day, see how these little children are dragging their clothing and their 
books with them from place to place. See how they fling them out in the street when 
they are playing. They are constantly bringing these very germs of disease into 
their midst, where they are imbibed by the children. 

Do you think, gentlemen, that it is going to do any good by having delicate 
mechanisms of children in class rooms, if they are freezing? 

The Chairman — Your time is up. 

Mrs. Loebinger — Have I spoken ten minutes? I am going to bring my speech 
to a conclusion. I want just another moment of this gentleman's time who only 
spoke about two minutes, and you know I am a woman — I want to interpose this — 
that it is really actually right wheji you say women have tongues. That is the only 
weapon with which we can fight, our tongues. 

I would like to say, gentlemen, that we wish to go on record as asking for 
economy in the proper time, in the proper place, but not for the proper education. 

That we ask the City of New York to place an injunction on any moneys that 
are to be spent for experiments when there are no moneys for necessities. When 
you have your necessities supplied first, then we may have money for luxuries and 
experiments. 

Mr. Wirt is getting $10,000 a year, a thousand dollars a month. Mr? Mayor and 
his Committee have cost the city $5,000 for his trip to Gary. The Gary school. No. 
45, in the Bronx, which is in the experimental stage, which is not perfect, and which 
may not be perfect for 20 years, cost, not $750,000, but up to January the round 
sum of $439,500, exact figures, for experimental purposes. 

Gentlemen, we ask you to stand by the City of New York. We are waking 
up, and you, my friends, try to keep awake and do what you think is right in the 
interest of this community. (Applause.) 



98 

The Chairman — The next name is Pascal. What is the full name? 

-Mrs. I. L. Pascal — Mrs. I. L. Pascal, representing Public School 54. 

My subject for this evening will be more kindergartens for the City of New 
York. For some time we have been canvassing the neighborhood near my school. 
No. 54. 

The Chairman — Do you represent 

Mrs. Pascal — Public School 54, and we find that there were in one-half block 
that we visited 24 families who did not know that there were kindergarten training 
classes in the public schools in their neighborhood. Among the families we visited 
were Irish, Russian Jews, Americans, Italians and various others. 

In order to ascertain what the kindergarten has done for the child, we visited 
these families and the reports that we have got are very interesting, although I 
won't go into details here, but, as a result of this investigation, I have chosen for 
my subject to-night, "Kindergartens, More Kindergartens and More Kindergartens." 

It is only play. How many times have I been given that reply to the question, 
Why don't you send your little ones to a kindergarten? 

Only play. It is. And of what significance, and how little understood is the 
value of play by the average parent, nay, even by the so-called educator? 

And yet this play movement was one of the most important movements in 
lean education, for it substituted activity for repression and insisted upon the 
child's rights to himself and to happiness during the educational process. 

Strange to say, the building up of the American school system has been a slow 
[1 began, not at the bottom, with the youngest child, but at the top. Indeed, 
the wrk of the youngest child was the last to be provided for. The kindergarten 
directs the child's activity into educational channels. The play becomes education. 
The dignity of labor is emphasized. In other words, the child is socialized. That 
is one of the chief factors of the kindergarten. Unselfishness and helpfulness are 
emphasized. Habits of cleanliness are taught. The family life is made beautiful. 
The child learns to respect things. It is a constant give and take, give and take. 
The kindergarten becomes the child's key to the outside world. He learns that he is 
a part of the whole. 

The kindergarten has for its aim the elevation of the home. It keeps the chil- 
dren of the slums off the streets, and they are made clean and happy by kind and 
motherly young women. That child, thus cared for, enables the mother to go to 
her work in or outside of the home. 

Ml this should appeal to the heart of the American public. But the kindergarten 
should not concern itself with the children of the poor alone. The children of the 
rich need it almost as much as those of the poor. The typical American family 
is of one child, whereas the children of the poor have companions and play- 
mates and their other brothers and sisters, who are in most cases removed from 
them in but few years. Again, the congested life of the poor sends the child into 
the street, whereas our parents, or our parents' parents have been brought up in 
the country with a small patch of ground surrounding the house. To-day, of course, 
it is the apartment house. 

The child of the wealthy mother, again, is left in the care of an untrained per- 
son, usually a nurse, for, just as the mother of the poor family is too occupied in 
her home or with work outside of it, so the rich mother is occupied socially, and 
in most cases both these mothers do not know how to direct the activity of the 
child, even though at home. 

In kindergarten games we see the true beginning for the child's physical devel- 
opment. In its gifts and occupations it exercises the foundation for art and manual 
training work, and in its garden work and nature excursions the foundation of a 
'rue knowledge of nature. 

Churches have established kindergartens. Individuals have endowed kinder- 



99 

gartens, and associations have been organized for the support and spread of kinder- 
gartens in every large city, and the fact that kindergartens can be carried on success- 
fully under city administration has been demonstrated. 

So the kindergarten has become an agency in church and mission work, and 
kindergarten principles are being accepted and applied in the Sunday school today. 

Therefore, the kindergarten has been recognized as a child saving agency. So, 
let us have kindergartens, more kindergartens and more kindergartens, and compul- 
sory kindergarten training for children, if it is possible. 

The Chairman — The Mothers' Council of the Public Schools of the City of New 
York desire to submit this communication, if I understand aright. 

Mrs. Frost — Yes. 

The Chairman — The next speaker is Mr. J. M. Goldig, parent of Public School 
No. 186, Manhattan. 

Mr. J. M. Goldig — Mr. Chairman and Members' of the Committee, Ladies and 
Gentlemen : I do not intend to make any speech, excepting to give a statement of 
facts. 

I know nothing of the Gary system excepting that before spending this enormous 
amount of money in experimenting that we give attention to the sanitary conditions 
of our schools, so that our children may not become anaemics and weaklings. I speak 
from a personal observation, in that I have a little girl who goes to P. S. 186 in 145th 
Street. It necessitates this little girl going to school at 8.30 in the morning, and she 
stays there until 11 o'clock, and she then comes home for lunch, and she goes back 
to school again at 12.20, and comes out of school at 2 o'clock. 

But imagine the conditions, the lack of schools which we have in New York, 
which necessitates this little girl to walk from 137th Street and Broadway to 146th 
Street between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue, four times a day, or in 
other words, making this child walk about two miles a day to and from school. 

You know if this condition prevailed in the country, if any one went to the 
country to live and found the school house half a mile away, you would throw up 
your hands and say, "Nothing doing." We want a school nearer the house than half 
a mile away. 

But, gentlemen, that is the condition which we are up against in the City of New 
York. We are taxed here so that we might have all the accommodations which we 
are entitled to, and yet we are living under conditions which would not be tolerated 
in country places. 

Of course, I do not know anything about the Gary system, excepting this: I 
know that I as a parent object to having the school system play checkers with the 
children, as I understand this Gary system does — keeps shifting them around all day 
long from one class to another, and that is not conducive to the health of children, 
especially when, I am informed, they are compelled to carry with them, for instance, 
on a rainy day, their umbrella, raincoat, and they come in the school houses dripping 
wet and move from class to class and carry all this paraphernalia with them; and 
you can readily see, gentlemen, that is not conducive to good health of the children. 

That is all I have to say, excepting I trust this Committee will make a recom- 
mendation that we should have more schools and more sanitary conditions in the 
schools we have, father than, as I said before, spending a lot of money and experi- 
menting for something which will not do away with the conditions as they exist today. 

The Chairman — The next speaker is Hon. Vincent Gilroy. 

Hon. Vincent Gilroy — Mr. Chairman, and I think most of you are, I might say 
almost, my personal friends, since you come from this section of the city that I had 
the honor to represent last_ year in the Legislature. 

Since that time my activities have been more devoted to affairs within the City 
of New York, and particularly to an examination of certain new policies which the 
present administration has attempted to force upon the educational system of our city. 



100 

I refer particularly to that scheme which is known as the Gary system of education. 

Now, the name Gary in subsequent discussions upon this proposition has been 
dropped, and there has been adopted the less offensive title, possibly, of duplicate 
school system, or work, study and play. 

Now, the change of name was very significant, and if you will but scrutinize the 
origin of the system and the town from whence it came, you will understand why the 
people of this city who are attempting to foist it upon the citizens of this community 
feared to continue under the name of Gary. 

Gary is the Steel Trust town of Indiana, owned, operated and controlled by the 
United States Steel Corporation. It is known in the parlance of the day as a satelite 
city, because it receives no inspiration from the people that reside in the town, but its 
policies are determined, and its governmental functions are exercised by the Board of 
Directors of the United States Steel Corporation. 

Now, among other policies, one of those upon which the directors of this mam- 
moth concern looked with particular favor was the establishment of a school system 
known as the Gary school system, fostered by Mr. William Wirt of that community 
originally. This system, despite the protestations of those who have attempted to 
introduce it here, was founded with one object in view; and that was the training 
of the child to be an efficient cog in the industrial machine (applause), and to shut 
off those parts from higher training, which every one of us desire to receive for our 
children. 

it has been contended, when the system was introduced in New York, 
that pre-vocational training is not an essential element of the system, and yet in its 
very origin it was established for that purpose, in the small town of Gary, Indiana, 
where trained and efficient artisans performed the work of teachers, taking the 
children into the verj factories where work was performed and endeavoring to 
make of children ten, eleven and twelve years of age efficient industrial cogs, as I 
before stated. 

Lest you think this is an exaggeration, I refer to the statement of Doctor 
Frederick T. Coats, of Rockefeller Educational Board, who wrote in "Country Schools 
of To-morrow," in substance, these words: 

"We do not desire to make poets or orators of these people. We do not 

cherish even the humbler ambition to raise up among them statesmen, lawyers, 

scientists or medical men, of whom we have an abundant supply." 

The lelj to train people to be satisfied with that condition to which 

possibly an unhappy fate had consigned them at birth. 

When tin- system was brought to the City of New York after a short time under 
the name of Gary, it adopted this other name, to do away with the manifest objection 
which people would have to an industrial system of education. Of course, the Gary 
system as adapted in the City of New York is a woeful failure, because it does not 
even pretend to the same activities as the school in Gary, Indiana. We have not 
the facilities lure. Our equipment is absolutely inadequate for a proper experiment 
of this plan, and yet upon the plan as established originally in Public School 45, 
Bronx, and Public School 89, Brooklyn, and upon all the unsuccessful experiments 
in those two schools, the people of this City were asked to change their entire school 
system that had been tested lor years, to change upon the basic experiment made in 
those two schools, and of course to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to 
remodel tin equipment of our present existing school plant to expend this money that 
the City really did not have. 

\\ i are to daj contending that the most essential things in schools are to give one 
seat to every child. (Applause.) 

When you go to ask that this policy be carried into effect you are met with 
the injunction that the Cit) of New York has no funds to extend this beneficent 



101 

principle to your children, who are compelled to receive inadequate education on part 
time. Yet we have the funds to pay Wirt and Arnstein $10,000 a year, and hundreds 
of thousands of dollars to remodel plants for experimental purposes. (Applause.) 

I say emphatically this : The Gary system is not meant for a community with 
ideals such as ours. While indeed it may do for an industrial community owned and 
controlled by a corporation that is seeking to make satisfied those who labor for it 
and those who seek no higher sphere of activity than that to which that corporation 
will assign them; yet in the City of New York I contend that the principle of that 
school system, of which 1 am a product, from primary grade to high school, with all 
its defects, if there be any, and I confess there may be some, I contend and I am 
thankful indeed that the basic principle at the bottom of our educational system to-day 
is that one basic principle, which, after all, is the only inspiration of American 
government — equal opportunity to all. (Applause.) 

There is a reason, and a basic reason, for the attempted introduction of this plan. 
Let us reflect for a moment. We are to-day embarking upon a very vital contest. 
We are contending that we go forth and overturn the autocracy which is bearing so 
burdensomely upon certain of the people of our world. Let us not, while we are 
advancing under the banners of democracy to overturn autocracy permit that condition 
to exist here which will result in the establishment of a tyranny equally as great as 
that which flourished abroad. (Applause.) 

Lest you think I exaggerate, I refer to the activities of a very powerful estab- 
lishment, which has received the sanction of many civic bodies in this community, 
and particularly of the City administration of the City of New York. I refer to the 
Rockefeller Foundation. There exists a letter, unfortunately I have not a copy with 
me to-night, but anybody that desires, I can give it to them some other evening at 
any time. 

The Chairman — You have one minute more. 

Mr. Gilroy — I will be through in another minute. 

It was written by Abraham Flexner, from 61 Broadway, the home of Rockefellers, 
and it went to all those inspired by Rockefeller, and it told them to act as a unit for 
the election of Mr. Willcox, in order that the policies of that foundation might be 
preserved. 

As a parting injunction — I regret I have not sufficient time to tell you more about 
it, to go into the details of the plan — as a parting injunction let me commend to you 
that the only reason why you find the general inspiration and loyalty to protect 
American institutions is because we believe they stand for equal opportunity, and 
if you strike at the principal institutions of this country, you strike at the basic ele- 
ments. Therefore, while your hosts are advancing to protect the honor of your 
flag and to 'protect the integrity of your homes, do not permit yourselves to be un- 
consciously conquered by a force which is seeking just as surely to dominate your 
ideals and dominate your life as any tyranny that existed abroad. (Applause.) 

The Chairman — The next name that appears on the list is Klein. 

Mr. Frederick Klein — My name is Frederick Klein, Public School 54, Parents 
Association. 

The Chairman— Is that a Gary school ? 

Mr. Klein — No. 

The Chairman — What is the Gary school number in this district? 

Mr. Klein — There is no Gary school yet, and I hope never will be. (Ap- 
plause.) 

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen : There is perhaps no section of The City 
of New York in which people have taken more interest in public school affairs than 
in this section of the City, which is known as the 18th School District. This district 
comprises six schools, and there is a very active Parents Association connected with 



102 

five of the schools. The one school that did not have a parents association, known 
as 179, has been picked upon by the Board of Education as one possibly fit for a high 
school. 

Why they picked out 179 is probably known to the Board of Education. Perhaps 
they were afraid to pick out one of the others on account of the Parents Associations. 
(Applause.) But this question of taking a school from the 18th School District, an 
elementary school, to use for some other purpose, is not new to us. Some two years 
ago an attempt was made to take Public School 54, in which I am interested, and a 
fight was made, and at that time the Board of Education or the Commissioners of 
the Board of Education were so constituted that they would listen to reason. Since 
that time the complexion of the Board of Education has been changed and they listen 
to nothing but. possibly, the President of the Board of Education. 

We had at this school here some few weeks ago one of those fortunate members 
of the Board of Education whom the orator who spoke just preceding me stated 
that he got $10,000, or is getting it now, he said ; and in speaking on Parents As- 
sociations he said in a general way that the most of them were nuisances. Well, per- 
haps they are, to the present constituted Board of Education, because most of them 
know what is going on there, but he said that if the Parents Association would give 
something constructive to the Board of Education that they would listen to them and 
possibly get a hearing, 

Of course you may know, some of you know, that it is impossible and not per- 
missible for an organization or a person to speak in the Board of Education proper at 
any of their meetings, but sometimes you get a hearing before a committee, and now 
to take up the challenge which Mr. Arnstein has issued to the Parents Association, 
and as an excuse or a good reason why the present schools in this district, particularly, 
and all the districts in the City of New York, should not be changed by consolidating 
them and crowding them, we have a plan to offer to the Board of Education. 

You all know that the compulsory 9chool age is between six and fourteen. At 
the age of fourteen a great many of the children graduating from the public schools 
are unable to go to a high school or to a commercial school, on account of the cost, 
with the result that the boys and girls who are unable to continue their education are 
forced to accept some position, in which position possibly they can go, which does 
not require any experience of any kind, which frequently leads young ladies who are 
bright enough, but without experience, to take positions in a store, where they should 
have something better, because their minds are trained for something better. 

This plan that we are going to suggest to the Board of Education is a plan that 
has been worked out by a principal of a school, and it can be adapted to any school 
in the City of New York. There are a number of empty classrooms in this building, 
not empty classrooms — I do not mean in the sense that nobody is occupying them, but 
they are not occupied by an elementary school pupil. They are occupied by children 
belonging to some high school. We have annexes in every single elementary school 
in this district. I do not know that there is an annex here, but in Public School 54 
we have one. 

Mr. Rothchild — This is Hunter high school. 

Mr. Klein — In this school it is Hunter. In another school it is Julia Richmond. 
With these annexes these schools are filled. 

Now. the Board of Education says if we take all these annexes out, put them 
somewhere else in the City of New York, we can dump out the school children at 
P. S. 179 and distribute them throughout this district here, which means crowding 
1,700 pupils, because there are 1,700 children in P. S. 179 in the other districts here. 

We do not want that; hut this is what we want: We want the Board of Educa- 
tion to permit the principal of each school to have what is known as the ninth year, or 
corresponding to a sort of Junior High School. It means giving the children that 



103 

are graduated from the public schools an opportunity to get at least one year's training 
in something that will fit them for something in future life (applause), and this plan 
which is fitted for this school will need 10 rooms, and I believe it is just about 10 
rooms that are occupied by the high school annex, so that if the Board of Education 
will permit the principal of this school to introduce the ninth grade or the ninth 
year grade into this school we can leave the school as it is, leave the other schools 
in this district as they are and leave P. S. 179 as it should be (applause). 

They suggest two extra rooms for domestic science, one room for a kitchen, one 
room for a model flat, two rooms for a business course, for the teaching of filing 
paper, bookkeeping, stenography, typewriting, office practice, study of business maps 
and so forth. 

They want one room for sewing and millinery. Tliat will give the girl particu- 
larly a chance to learn the millinery business and be prepared to accept a position in 
that if that is what she wants when she gets out of this one year of ninth grade. 

They want one room for a lunch room and a teachers' library ; a room where 
I believe the idea is that the teacher and children can lunch and they can also use it 
as a library for the use of the teachers. 

One room for a historical museum, for a collection of objects, pictures, magazine 
articles and documents relating to the history of the City of New York. 

One room for exhibition of school work and activities. 

One room for the making of novelties. 

I believe that states that whole point, but I will leave this with your stenographer 
because it is prepared. (Filing paper.) 

I want to state this: I do not know what good the Board of Aldermen can do; 
I hope they can do a lot of good, but I want to say this : That under the law the 
Board of Education proper is the only legally constituted body in the City of New 
York that should look after the education of the children of this city. For the last 
few years the majority members of the Board of Estimate have domineered and 
dominated over the Board of Education with sufficient influence so that the Board 
of Education does what the Board of Estimate wants them. 

I hope that your recommendation will be that the Board of Education will be 
absolutely divorced from the Board of Education, so that after next election we will 
have a Board of Education that will be appointed by an unbiased Mayor, so that the 
public schools of the City of New York can be run by an unbiased Board of Educa- 
tion. (Applause.) 

The Chairman — Mr. Alphonzo.- 

Mr. Alphonzo — Mr. Chairman, Members of the Parents' Association : I am one 
of the parents of children going to School 179, that has been affected by this proposed 
change. 

The Board of Education has" proposed to take away the school house at 101st 
Street and 102nd Street. I reside in 99th Street. If they take this school house away 
from us folks living in 99th Street it is going to take our boys who are going to the 
grammar grades and compel them to go 10 blocks on inclement days, causing them a 
whole lot of inconvenience. It is going to bring the children of our school in more 
congested classes. We folks have had the thing thrashed out and asked about, and 
Mrs. Ford, one of the Board of Education members, has put forth figures whereby 
she contends they are justified in taking it. Her own figures show that they are not; 
that the average in our district of the six schools run 39.16 to the class on an average. 
We have in the district bounded by 50th Street and 109th Street two school districts, 
comprising 12 school houses. We average over here a whole lot more than what our 
friend, one of the former speakers, said should be a normal class. Why they should 
come and take one of these school houses out of the district so sparsely settled with 
schools, we think the parents of 179 and 18th school district, that we are not being 
justly dealt with. 



104 

We think that the Julia Richmond High School that is proposed to be put in our 
school district here requires a school. As the Board of Estimate and Education 
proposes to spend $126,000, we say spend $326,000 more and give them a school and 
that will leave our schools alone. If economy must be practiced, do not practice it on 
the poor youngster that is 12 to 14 years of age. (Applause.) 

We pay the taxes. I for one am willing to pay a a little bit more to overcome 
such a condition such as prevailed with me in my own personal experience with my 
eldest child. She was 7 years of age and I could not get her into school because 
they told me there was no seats. I went up there for three long months, working 
at night and went every Monday for three months and could not get the child in 
school until I invested a dollar and a quarter for a desk and chair and took her 
to the school, to the principal and told them to seat her in that, and give her an 
education. 

That is a condition that has prevailed in this City some fifteen years ago. That 
happened in School 125 between 2nd and 3rd Avenues. I could not get my child 
in that school for three months. I bought a desk and chair and took them to the 
principal and told the principal to give her an education; that I would pay for the 

. and I left it. 

We do not want that condition to exist again in this district. We are nicely 
situated. The children have got seats. They say that they have got too much room, 
but I say give the children a little bit more of it, there is not too much as it is. 
(Laughter.) 

I do not want to take any more of your time than I am allotted, but we parents 
in the 18th District— I hav< been going over the figures about the different school 
houses through the whole district ami through the districts from a list that Mrs. 
I ord affords us. 

There are schools in other districts, if they must have them, which are nearer 
one another, whereas if they take our school il is going to discommode the children 
in the most crowded street in the City of New York, that is 100th Street, between 
Columbus Avenue and Amsterdam Avenue. That is one of the most thickly populated 

i . with children in the City of New York, barring none, from the census. They 
arc going i" lake the onlj school in close proximity to those children and chase 
blocks further. We do not fee! that the Board of Education is giving 
us a just or square deal. 

The Chairman — What is your authority for that, 

Mr. Alphonzo — Mrs. Ford's own figures. 

The Chairman — Is that a letter or a statement. 

Mr. Alphonzo — X". just a typewritten statement. (Statement filed.) 

'flic Chairman — The next speaker is Mr. Prussian. 

i. in — My name is Frederick H. Prussian, President of Parents' Assp- 
ilili. School 54, and Secretary of the 18th School District, the League. 

Mr Chairman, if this was the 7th of November, I would not have to stand here 
and argue the question of why they should not take 179. (Applause.) I am not here 
nt my own Parents' Association. I am only here as Secretary of the 
League, representing 10,000 parents in the 18th School District, who want to know 
from you; gentlemen, what are you going to do with the Board of Education to help 
us prevent, or to prevent them from taking P. S. 179, away from the little tots in 
99th Street and 100th Street? (Applause.) There are 1,700 children in that school, 
llic oldest not over 14. As one mother expresses it, she has 3 little tots, 6, 7 and 8 
old. Have you any idea what it means to that mother who has got to take 
those children to school through slush and snow an extra 5 or 10 blocks? The 

Her child will be boosted 5 blocks further north or south and the larger 5 to 
In blocks north or south. 

The City of New York has the old college grounds in 23rd Street and Lexington 



105 

Avenue. They have a lot of vacant property here on the west side that they could 
dispose of and with that money build Julia Richmond as fine a high school as 
they want and not give her a makeshift. (Applause.) 

Julia Richmond is not going to get a high school as they think they are going 
to get, because they are not going to get a complete school, because they are going to 
take 10 classes out of 9 and help to complete Julia Richmond high school, and they 
are asking for an appropriation of $126,000, Mr. Chairman, but I will make you a 
wager that it will be nearer $500,000 before Mr. Wilson gets through getting his idea. 

Those are facts and those figures will work out just about that way. All I want 
to say in conclusion is that I do not want to take up any more time, as a representa- 
tive of this Parents' Association in this district, we want to protest to you from the 
bottom of our hearts against taking P. S. 179. I have at home a petition signed 
by 5,000 people in this district, parents, with their own handwriting, which I will 
send or mail to you wherever you say. They are addressed to the Board of Aldermen. 

The Chairman — Let me understand you. Where is this P. S. 179, 99th Street and 
100th Street? 

Mr. Prussian — 101st Street and 102nd Street, right between Columbus Avenue 
and Amsterdam Avenue, on the south side of the street, if you take one, and on 
the north side if you take the other. 

The Chairman — Is it an elementary school? 

Mr. Prussian — Yes. 

The Chairman — Containing grammar and primary? 

Mr. Prussian — Kindergarten, primary and grammar. 

The Chairman — And they are going to abandon that school? 

Mr Prussian — No. I will tell you a little piece of history. 

The Chairman — Where did you get the notion that they contemplated doing 
what you say? 

Mr. Prussian — The daily papers tell you. The school Board tells you that. The 
Board of Education has posted that the City Superintendents have recommended 
that it be taken. 

The only thing that awaits the prevailing of that thing is the Board of Estimate 
and Apportionment passing $126,000 or passing the buck so they can take the schools. 
Where are the schools nearest to 179? ' 

Mr. Prussian — The nearest school for girls — this is a boys' school — some girls in 
it — the nearest school for boys is 109th Street and Amsterdam Avenue. The nearest 
school for the girls is 104th Street and Amsterdam Avenue. Then there is this 
school and the school down at 89th Street, No. 9, or 83rd Street. 

The Chairman — And they contemplate sending the children that are now going 
either to 179, down here; is that your understanding? 

Mr. Prussian — I do not know how they are going to work that. They have 
not said. When Leo Arnstein was here at a .meeting he promised the League and 
everyone of the Parents Association that before any action was taken in taking one 
of these schools he would give us notice and give us a chance as parents, taxpayers, 
to come before the proper committee to ask the committee and argue the point of 
why it should or should not be taken. We have never got any notice to appear. 
We have been ignored entirely by everybody at the Board of Education. 

Alderman McManus — You did not receive any notice from the Board of Esti- 
mate and Apportionment about that matter before them? 

Mr. Prussian — No sir. That is the fact. We sent a request to be notified and 
have not been notified. 

Alderman McManus — Will you leave your name and address of the League, 
so that you can get that communication? 

Mr. Prussian — I certainly will. 

Alderman McManus — Tin's Committee will see that you get your communication 



106 

when that matter comes up before the Board of Estimate and Apportionment. 
(Applause.) 

Mr. Prussian — I am sure every one of this Association and all the parents of 
this district would be only too thankful to you if you gentlemen could put forward 
your efforts to save P. S. 179 for the little tots. 

That is all we ask of you. 

The Chairman — Alderman Friedlander wants to ask you a question. 

Alderman Friedlander — If this demonstration is the consensus of opinion, or at 
lease of this particular district, it seems to me that your organization should make 
some effort to appear before the Board of Estimate and Apportionment when this 
matter comes up and then and there voice your sentiments with respect to the con- 
ditions that you find in this school district by reason of the taking of that school 
away from you, and undoubtedly you will receive recognition there. 

The Chairman — Has this matter been before the Board of Estimate? 

Alderman Friedlander — No, it has not come before the Board of Estimate as 
yet. 

Mr. Prussian — The matter has been sent to the Board of Estimate and Apportion- 
ment for their appropriation. 

Alderman Friedlander — It has not come up for public hearing. If it had, you 
would have received notice to that effect. 

M r. Prussian — But in educational matters they do not grant public hearings to 
parents, associations or anybody interested in that line of work, and we would be 
only too glad to get such notice, because 10,000 will march down there and make 
their voices heard. (Applause.) 

The Chairman — Are moneys to be appropriated in this matter? 

Mr. Prussian -Yes, $126,000 to renervate that school so as to make it applicable 
for a high school for Julia Richmond. There was $18,000 asked for by the Board 
of Education to the Board of Estimate and Apportionment to remodel P. S. 54, so 
they could make it a duplicate school, so as to take in a portion of P. S. 179's 
children. That has been abolished. That has been stricken out. Why? Because 
they knew that the Parents' Association of P. S. 54 was too powerful for them and 
had too much to say. That is why they did not want to buck up against it, but they 
took P. S. 179, that had .no association, only a mothers' circle, so to speak, but 
there are tots — I wish you would go to that school and see those tots — most of 
them are Italian children, and what will the foreigners say if you take those children 
and drive them away? They will say of us we are worse than the Czar of Russia. 
(Applause.) 

Alderman Collins — I have heard many references to "you members of the Board 
of Aldermen" preventing. AVill you tell me how you members of this Committee 
or the Board of Aldermen can prevent that if the Board of Estimate and the Board 
of Education want to take that school away from you? 

Mr. Prussian — I should judge that you people have competent enough counsel 
in the Board of Aldermen that can do most anything (laughter), and I think if you 
brought your influence to bear you certainly could find some way around or some 
place to get it, but I tell you one thing, if that thing goes through, we will get an 
injunction in court against them, because the Board of Education is supposed to 
appropriate their own monej and in their own way and not ask the Board of Esti- 
mate and Apportionment to spend it. 

Alderman Collins — Yes, that is true. That is why we have asked these questions. 
We did not want you to get the belief that if that condition did exist that that school 
was taken away from you that the Board of Aldermen was responsible. 

Mr. Prussian — No, we have not that idea. We know different than that. 

Alderman Collins — The Board can only recommend it. They would recommend 
that just what you want, in this particular instance, after we investigate it. 



107 

Mr. Prussian — We would like to have your influence back of us to prevent this 
matter going through. 

Alderman Collins — You may depend on that in this matter. 

Mr. Prussian — We know that. 

Mr. Rothchild — We know that. We also know what is found in Denmark. 

The Chairman — Miss Day. 

Miss Day — I speak from the standpoint of a visiting teacher, and 1 ask for rich 
opportunities for children. 

If you were to see a class of children in this assembly filled with children 
to-night, you would see only the surface of a child's life. The successful teacher 
in the school room sees beneath that surface and has a messenger she sends into 
the home. There are many reasons why the school teacher could not and cannot 
make these visits themselves. The visiting teacher is then sent to the home by 
the teacher herself and she is the tool or rather the agent for that teacher. There 
is no more fitting time that we should discuss this question than at the time when 
our hearts are stirred by patriotism, when we are willing to make sacrifices, and 
when we are generous. 

I picked up the paper to-day and I read these headlines : " report $3,039,000 
subscribed to Berlin loan" "passes Senate as unit for bond issue — passes — Seven 
Million dollar measure, 84 to 0." "Won't make peace, Russia assures us," and 
so on. The items go on to get Two Billion Dollars a day. 

That is the thing that interests me. We are willing to contribute all that 
money to kill men. I am not a pacifist. I am a fighter. I wish that I were a man 
so that I could help defend this country, (applause) but I think all that amount 
of money to kill men and we are not generous enough to contribute like amounts 
to take care of the. children in this country. 

When Mr. Harriman took charge of the U. P. railroad, it was heavily in- 
debted. He borrowed an immense sum of money and began to put that road in 
good condition under great protest. He said "I will put this road in such an 
earning capacity that it will not only pay the debts but we will make something 
from it." Mr. Harriman was just right. 

If the vice among children in this country increases at the present rate the 
question of future generations will not be "am I my brother's keeper," but it will 
be "how can I protect myself from my neighbor." Those are the things underneath 
the surface that many people are studying to-day and these are some of the things 
that I would request . 

Not retrenchment in school affairs, but greater expenditures. 

A kindergarten in every school. 

A day nursery wherever it is needed. 

Ungraded classes. We need many of them, and we need several in every school. 

We need vocational work and we need playgrounds. 

To tell you a little bit about what the district teacher does, she is the conecting 
link between the home and the school. As I said before, she is the messenger of the 
teacher. She not only goes to the home to make adjustments in the home, but she 
uses every agepcy in the community to reconstruct that child's life and to make 
adjustments for it. Then she brings to her work people in the community who other- 
wise would not have an opportunity to get into the school room, the voluntary worker. 

There are women in this City who are members of clubs, who are intelligent, 
well educated women and having raised their own families and administered the 
affairs of their own home successfully, they want to do something for someone else. 
The visiting teacher makes it possible for that person to get into communication with 
the school. I need not tell members of District 18 about that. You already know 
what the Local Board are doing in this community as regards voluntary workers. 



108 

They are carrying on a work that cannot be paid for. If you had paid workers for 
that that would bring increased budget. 

I only ask you to make an investigation of the thing that Mrs. Magnus and Mrs. 
Davis are doing in placing the children, and the thing was taken up by the Local 
Board in this district several years ago. 

As I said to you before, the visiting teacher looks after the child individually. 
If we are going to have our neighborhood be what it is, if the citizenship of the future 
is to be improved, we have got to find the means of dealing with every child individu- 
ally. The visiting teacher is not the only person that does that. There are many 
agencies in the community that do it, but just now the visiting teacher is conspicuously 
doing that. 

Alderman McManus — Whom do you represent? 

Miss Day — I represent the public education association. 

Alderman McManus — Are you a member of the Board of Education? 

Miss Day — No. 

Alderman McManus — Are you connected with it in any way? 

Miss Day — No, not connected with the Board of Education. 

Alderman McManus — Were you a teacher? 

Miss Day — Yes. 

Alderman McManus — You are not a teacher now? 

Miss Day — I am not a teacher now. 

Alderman McManus — Your main object is in getting positions for visiting teach- 
ers? 

Miss Day — Not at all. 

Alderman McManus — Yon want to create positions for them? 

Miss Day — You mean visiting teachers? 

Alderman McManus — Yes 

Miss Day — I think there should be a visiting teacher in every school in the City. 
(Applause. ) 

To give you an illustration of some of the things the visiting teacher does: This 
week the visiting teacher was sent to a home where the father is rather lazy, in- 
different and drinks. There is a family of six, and soon to be an increase in that 
family, and the mother is washing and helping to eke out a living. That boy had to 
stay out of school. Through the organization and through a kindly woman in our 
parents association we furnished the boy with clothing, and he came back to school 
well dressed, clean and respectable and is doing good work in the school. 

The teacher could not have dene that for that boy in many days. The visiting 
teacher by giving her entire time to that, by going to the home immediately, by being 
able to go to all these various agencies that have anything to do with the boy, in two 
days reconstructed that boy in a way so that he could return to school. She put 
that home in contact with agencies that immediately began to put it upon its feet. 

Three years ago a boy was referred to me, whose father was a drunkard, and his 
mother was insane. It seemed in the face of all these obstacles that nothing could 
be done for that child. We did do something for him. We interested a parish 
visitor. We interested several people, who took this child individually and helped 

10k out for them. To-day that boy is out at work making over $8 a week. The 
eldest girl is ready to go to work. The four little children — the two youngest chil- 
dren are keeping house and doing the work under the direction of a volunteer worker 
who goes to the home every day or every week. 

Another boy, left an orphan, his mother had died and his father had die. and he 
was left with his grandmother, and his grandmother died subsequently and left him 
with an indifferent relative. The clerk of the school was interested through the 
visiting teacher. Next the day teacher was interested. Next the Sunday School 
teacher was interested, and finally the relative deserted the boy. There isn't any child 



109 

as hard to take care of as a child who has relatives to look for it, because every- 
body seems to think the relative should do this. 

The Chairman — You have one minute more. 

Miss Day — The Sunday School teacher took this boy in her home until she could 
find a proper home for him. 

Not 3 weeks ago a man killed his wife in our neighborhood. The children were 
scattered and they were put among various relatives. Our visiting teacher is looking 
up these children, and the school will keep its hold upon the children, and we will see 
that they won't be neglected. If the relatives do not take the proper care of these 
children, we will see that they are put in a proper institution. 

There is one thing that I would like to say and that is this : "To wake up 
America for the children," and I wish the men would start it. Almost everyone of 
these movements are started by women. I wish not only "wake up America" in New 
York, but to go all over this country and find some means of increasing our appro- 
priations for the schools, so that we could give the children richer opportunities. 
(Applause.) 

Mr. Klein — Could I just present a letter that will help you in what I stated 
before? 

The Chairman — Just file it with the stenographer. 

Mr. Klein — 1 will just read it, so you will know what it says. 

The Chairman — If you will just wait until the other speakers are through we 
will be glad to hear you. 

Peter Schlosser. Have you anything new you want to tell us, Mr. Schlosser? 

Mr. Peter Schlosser — Quite a little more, Mr. Chairman. (Applause.) 

As the representative of the Tenants' Organization, the people who in the end 
pay for all the bills, the maintenance of all the public officials and schools. In the 
first place, I want to corroborate what one speaker here said before me about the 
shameful conditions in Public School 45 in the Bronx. 

The sanitation there is very bad and there is one little item there that should 
absolutely be abolished in that line and that is the holding of folk dances in the 
school in the evenings. 

Alderman Collins — You spoke at the meeting in Brooklyn? 

Mr. Schlosser — I did. 

Alderman Collins — You spoke at the meeting in 

Mr. Schlosser — In the Bronx. 

Alderman Collins — Did you speak in the meeting at the Bronx? 

Mr. Schlosser — Yes. 

Alderman Collins — And at the City Hall? 

Mr. Schlosser — I spoke in the meeting in the Bronx. 

Alderman Collins — Do you know anything about conditions around here? 

Mr. Schlosser — No, not around the immediate neighborhood. No. 

Alderman Collins — If there are people present here who know conditions of their 
own neighborhood, I for one do not care to hear the same speaker at every one of 
our meetings about conditions in the Bronx. I want the conditions in this neighbor- 
hood to be explained. 

Mr. Schlosser — I am going to speak of other conditions as well as the Bronx, 
but if there is anybody in the neighborhood, I have no objection to your proceeding 
with them. 

This condition to which I call special attention to in the Bronx is the hygienic 
conditions there. It is a shame to have that in a public paper that school children get 
loathsome diseases from the characters who frequent the dances. That should be 
abolished. 

Second, the swimming pools should be abolished in every school as disease car- 
riers. 



110 

The Chairman — You told us all of that when you were in the Bronx. 

Mr. Schlosser — I will go further. (Laughter.) We hear and will hear about 

The Chairman — If there is anything new ■ 

Mr. Schlosser — If you want me to sit down, I will sit down. That is all. 

The Chairman — If there is anything new that you want to present, I for one 
will be pleased to let you present it, but don't tell us the same thing, because we heard 
that in the Bronx. 

Mr. Schlosser — But there are people who have not heard it (applause and laugh- 
ter), and to whom it is news. If you don't want me, I will sit down. 

Alderman Collins — The stenographer will take a record of every hearing. If 
you are going to have the same speakers at every public school we attend, you will 
have the same kind of talk taken down by your stenographer. I want to hear the 
people of this section and to listen to their complaints. We heard all about the Bronx. 

The Chairman— There is no necessity of repeating all those matters. If there 
is anything new you want to present later, present it, but let us have something new. 

Mrs. Magnus. 

Mrs. Magnus — Gentlemen, I am going to speak along quite different lines to what 
any of the previous speakers have spoken. I would only like to introduce my re- 
marks by saying that I can agree with and corroborate every statement that has been 
made in regard to the way the schools are being starved. 

We go around in our buildings. There are broken hinges, there are. In one of 
ichools here the other day the janitor sent for me and there were complaints 
about a cold room, and the glass was so loose in the window and the sash was loose 
in the frame, so tl^at the snow was coming into the room. 

The Chairman — In this building? 

Mrs. Magnus — No, not in this one; in another school in this district. 

In another room I went in the door goes through a little passageway and across 

the entrance there was a puddle of water, about, probably, three feet long by 18 

inches wide. The water was coming through the wall and draining down. It was 

in a top floor. It did not come from the ceiling, but the rain was coming through 

the wall and seeping down and running along the floor, so you had to jump over 

tin' puddle as you went into the room, if you did not want to get your feet wet, 

my district, and I think other local board members will say the same 

their districts, the buildings are being allowed to get into a deplorable 

tion of disrepair and some day the bill is going to be a huge one. 

A stitch in time is known to save nine, but we cannot get any money for repairs. 
The Board of Education tells us they have none. Now, I am going to speak on a 
matter where 1 think possibly a saving in money can be made. 

In the year 1907 or 1908, around that time, there was a revision of the course 

tudy and the Board of Superintendents and the Board of Education decided to 

limit foreign languages in the elementary schools. Probably some of you gentlemen 

ugh to remember what the foreign language class was when you went 

to .t. 1 think usually you had to have two teachers in the class in order to get any 

foreign language at all. 

To, I think pretty nearly 50 per cent, of our school children, possibly it may be 
more, English is a foreign language, and I think it is a very foolish thing, and the 
(■durational authorities at that time thought it was very foolish to impose another 
ii language upon them. 

I sat next to Mr. Herman Ridder at a hearing that was held on the question 
of various changes that were proposed, and on that occasion I saw the effect of those— 
what kind of influence was it that we heard of in one of the meetings a couple of 
weeks ago— sinister influences? — be brought to bear. 

Alderman Collins— Mr. Schlosser told us "sinister influences" the last time he 
spoke. 



Ill 

Mrs. Magnus— Mr. Herman Ridder said that the German citizens of New York 
City were taxpayers and that they intended to have their own language taught in the 
classes and to their children and within a few hours Mr. Herman Ridder visited the 
then Mayor of the City, Mr. George B. McClellan, and told him— threatened him with 
the loss of the Ridder vote, and we have German in the schools. 

I was very much interested in having handed to me a day or two ago an article 
from one of the papers, headed "turning out good citizens. Not an absence in 
night schools among Italians for teaching English. It is four flights up, narrow 
flights of stairs of 438 West Broadway, to the school room for good citizenship. 
It is open two nights a week. There are no restrictions on attendants and no 
rules. If one misses a lesson or two or three, the teacher's assistant will help 
the pupils to catch up with the class, and these men say 'I want to be American; 
I got to speak American.' " When it became apparent that this country would go 
to war, more than one said he wanted to speak English so he could fight for 
America." 

That school is maintained by Joseph Pasca, Editor of the Italian weekly, which 
is the outgrowth of two ideals: Service to his countrymen and service to hfs 
adopted country. He had been repeatedly told that Italians were backwood in 
the public night schools. He was sure his people were not dull. On the con- 
trary they were eager for education. Only one explanation could he find : They 
were self conscious among the many nationalities gathered in the class rooms, 
so he established this school." I have investigated the matter and I find that 
for teaching English to foreigners we are now having classes 70 nights a year, 
that costs a little over $200,000. Remember, that is for teaching English to the 
foreigners who come here and who want to learn to speak American, to become 
American citizens. For teaching German alone to American citizens, we are spend- 
ing, I have it, including the materials, over half a million. We are spending for 
teachers for German alone, $477,770. There are other teachers : Teachers of 
German and Spanish, teachers of French and German, that raise that amount up, 
and then there are the materials that are not included in that. 

Gentlemen, I feel that Half a million dollars would better be expended teaching 
foreigners who come to us to become American citizens than maintaining a foreign 
language in the country for the benefit of foreign newspapers, (applause). 

The Chairman — The next name that appears on the list is Lewinson. 

Miss Sara Lewinson — I want to say a word for the neglected girl. That title 
was given to a certain class of girls by Miss Ruth Drew, who made the in- 
vestigation for the Russell Sage Foundation in 1914, in her East Side studies. Dr. 
John W. Davis, Director of the Bureau of Attendence, reports that the total number 
of hearings last year on Truancy was 4,071, 3,555 being for boys, and 512 for 
girls ; these were the cases on which hearings had to be held. The total number 
of truancy cases reported last year was 29,520, of which 2,626 were girls. 

The girls of public school age who get into trouble are very unfortunate in 
this way : That nothing can be done to save them. There is nothing between 
a threat and the reformatory, and a girl has to get to be very bad before we 
send her to the reformatory, where it is really almost too late to help her. We 
have a school for boys. 

The Chairman — Are you connected with the educational system? 

Miss Lewinson — I am a member of the 21st District. 

We have a school for boys which is doing a splendid work in helping 

boys to regain their balance, and saving them for citizenship, and if that school 
is of value for boys, it seems only fair that the girls should have an equal 
opportunity ; and that a school should be established for girls along similar lines 
where they would be taken away from the surroundings in which they find them- 



112 

selves and where they find it hard to resist temptation and where they are given 
a chance to do some good work in clean surroundings, and under the supervision 
of some understanding person to save them also for citizenship. We have never 
had that kind of a school. I spoke to Dr. Flesner about it some years ago, at 
the time when Dr. Maxwell had said that he felt that an institution would put 
a stigma on a girl and Dr. Flesner said at the time that he did not see why that 
would put a stigma on a girl, it would depend, of course on the kind of institution, but 
a girl who is left to drift until she is fit only for a reformatory is really putting 
a stigma on herself and no one is helping to guard against that stigma. 

The Child Welfare Bureau of the Association of Women principals has pre- 
sented a brief on the establishment of a country school for girls, and about 6 months 
ago, the Central Committee of Local School Boards endorsed that recommendation, 
and I would call your Committees attention briefly to that, for your earnest con- 
sideration, (applause). 

The Chairman— The next name is Blumenstock. upon the list of speakers that 
desire to be heard. 

Mr. Henry Blumenstock— 1 am President of Parents' Association of P. S. ll.9: 

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, the hour is drawing late, so I will endeavor 
Ice up as little of the time of the gentlemen in the audience as possible, so 
1 will skim very rapidly over what I wish to say to you. 

On the Gary system, gentlemen and ladies, we simply place ourselves in this 
; n: We are against it on general principles. 

The Chairman — Whom do you represent? 

Mr, Blumenstock— The Parents' Association of Public School 169, Audubon 
Avenue, 168th Street to 169th Street. 

We are against that on general principles, for the reason that they have not 
proven its merits as yet, and, until they prove it, I do not see as to why any agita- 
tion should 1" bl >ught down to start the thing over the entire City of New York, 
because we do not know what it is, or what it amounts to, and so our association, 
I am speaking for them, simply placing ourselves the same way as the denizens of 
Missouri, show us what you are doing before you start it any further. 

It has often been said that our educational system has come to this stage on 

lint of shortage of money. That is true. I had occasion to work for getting 
a high school on Washington Heights, had the honor of being the Chairman of the 
Executive Committee up there, and I quote Professor Franklin H. Cady, whom 1 
approached on the subject and approached upon the matter of elementary schools, 
and said : "Professor, in your opinion, how much would it cost to bring the ele- 
mental schools -i ll'<' < try of New York up to a basis of five hours a day school, 
single i bn, 25 t<> 30 pupils in a class?" That is about the generally accepted 
quantity, as I understand, in a class where individual attention could be given to 
the pupils. Beyond that sum, sometimes a teacher has not the pleasure of knowing 
his boys and girls up to the day of their graduation, when he bids them very hearty 
live and wishes them good luck. To that he replied somewhere between thirty 
and thirty-live million dollars. 

That is necessary, gentlemen, and, whether it is a million more or less is beside 
the question, If it is in the opinion of you, honorable gentlemen, that the schools 
should be brought up to that stage, that is a financial problem that we will have 

to pass. 

We have simply been skimping on our educational system, so far as I can see, 
for the past eight or ten years. We have not built buildings to meet the school 
population that is coming on and the result is that we are running three million 
dollars and four million dollars short, and are up against a big sum for the present 

time. 

How that can be saved is a question. Whether it is by elision of unnecessary 



113 

features— for instance, the elementary schools, we may have to cut out the frills, 
tor I know, when I went to school, we had to pay for textbooks; those who could 
afford it. Possibly that will be a little help, although I am not in favor of it. At 
the same time, taking up the threads of taxation all over, which are laying around 
loose, will possibly help a good deal. 

1 call your attention to the fact that right near the City Hall is a piece of 
property laying around, which I think cost $12,500,000. 

The Chairman— Are you referring to the court house site? 

Mr. Blumenstock— I am referring to the court house site, Mr. Chairman. You 
are paying interest on it and you are losing your taxation value, as I understand, 
accurately, you are losing about $2,500 a day by not building. That would help to 
put a good deal to immediately pick up this few odd million dollars that we are. 
short of. (Applause.) 

It may be, gentlemen, in order to suggest to you possible legislation, that you 
make the Board of Education a separate and distinct body of its own. That is, to 
make its own tax rate. I refer to the plans that are laid along those of the Board 
of Education at Philadelphia. They make their own tax rates. I believe they get 
a certain amount or percentage from the city. That goes. We know that. Here 
we quibble, quibble and quibble, and now .vitness we are trying to evade an ex- 
penditure of $35,000,000 or $40,000,00, whatever it will cost to bring up the schools 
to this so-called duplicate system or play system, whatever it is, although I fail 
to see how you can kick children around, and have a boy or girl be able to con- 
centrate mentally. I cannot do it. I have got to sit down, instead of being chased 
around from room to room. 

The recommendation is submitted for consideration as to whether or not the 
Board will levy its own taxes and some other tax. That is a matter for legislative 
enactment, to be considered, if necessary. 

Another subject touched upon, the sub-normal classes. I will explain that by 
saying the boy of 15 or 16 years of age who usually knows no more than the boy of 
11 or 12, on account of the overcrowded condition of a good many of our schools, 
these boys are now in with the normal pupils. They are the but of all ridicule. The 
little boy is proud, he knows it, and knows the big fellow is not as bright ; he gets 
the big fellow angry, the big fellow cannot help it ; it is usually heredity, it has been 
passed down to him. 

A good many of our folks advocate putting children of that sort in a separate 
building. That puts a distinction upon them. Parents are touchy upon that subject, 
and I believe every effort should be strained, no matter how great, to keep those 
youngsters apart and under such conditions as may be suited to these children. 

In conclusion I call your attention to the fact that we are the custodians of as 
great an amount of school children, future citizens, as any city in the world has, 
amounting to forty army divisions, practically 800,000 children. What you make of 
them, so your country will be; they wont be any better. I thank you. 

The Chairman — Mr. Frank E. Karelsen. 

■Mr. Frank E. Karelsen — Mr. Chairman, Gentlemen of the Committee. As I 
understand it, the function of a Committee such as this, on the present conditions, is 
to investigate faults. If I am not out of order, I would like to speak in a different 
strain to most of the speakers that I have heard here in the Bronx and in Brooklyn. 

For nearly 20 years I have been interested as a volunteer in the public schools of 
the City of New York. 

At the present time I am a member of the 22nd District which is Washington 
Heights. 

My close observation makes me only speak in admiration, in the highest com- 
mendation, of the Board of Education, for the wonderful work they have done with 
the money at their command. The entire trouble with the schools, and 1 address 



114 

you as a finance committee, or a committee on taxation, in place of a welfare com- 
mittee, you will find on close investigation after you make a careful research and 
reading of the complaints, that all the complaints that I have heard thus far in the 
three hearings can be remedied with dollars and cents, excepting the one just men- 
tioned by Mrs. Magnus. She specified where a moral economy might be accomp- 
lished. 

The claim which this district is fighting against so strongly, P. S. 179, is only to 
be met on the part of the Board of Education. I am not a member of the Board of 
Education. I am only a local school board man. They are only recommending that 
to save money. The large classes, 50 to 60, where it should be 20 to 30 at most, as 
all educators all over the United States agree, in fact, all over the world, it is only 
to save money. The large schools, from three to six thousand, are large because it 
saves money. 

The double sessions, which every one knows is wrong, which we have heard all 
the details of, their inconvenience, they are only instituted by the Board of Education 
to save money. 

We have the class rooms overcrowded beyond a hygienic point because it is 
cheaper than any other way. I wrote to the Board of Health complaining about the 
large number of children in the class rooms. I discovered that in the City of New 
York there is provision made for cows and horses and animals and people in lodging 
houses, and there is a law requiring a certain number of cubic feet, that they must 
have, where there is no law regulating the number of cubic feet in buildings for 
children. 

There are signs on the door about the cubic feet. You find a sign, "This room 
should have 20," or 40 or 60 — that is not enforced. It is only violated because they 
do not have sufficient money. 

1 wrote to the Superintendent of Buildings of New York City in regard to one 
ool, 169, where the plastering is falling from the walls, that is only a sample of 
oilier instances, and he said he would have it attended to next year; hasn't any money 
this year. 

Now, there were 53 complaints of fire violations in one school, which I will not 
mention because it will scare the parents, and while I was making a fight about it, 
which was one year ago. the school took fire and a space of about 12 or 15 feet was 
burned in the floor, and while it is nearly a year since those violations were filed 
they have not been remedied, because they haven't the money. We have dark class 
rooms which are injurious to eyes, because they have not the money to build new ones. 

Si I could go on. I have over 150 items, which I will not burden you with, 
.•nlv and solely, every one of them, without exception, because there is no money. 

Therefore, permit me respectfully to suggest to your Committee that you cease 
to be a pedagogic committee, or any other kind of a committee in regard to edu- 
cation, and resolve yourselves into a committee on finance and raise more money. 
Let the citizens not object to paying more taxes then for better schools and classes. 
The teachers are poorly paid. 

The Gary system is not instituted because they think it is the best system, but 
solely and only because it is economic. We are paying our teachers, some of them, 
le^s money than ordinary laborers, because we haven't more money to raise their 
salaries; and I could go on for hours only with the same subject, only and solely, 
dollars and cents ; and I found that for the last 20 years. 

The Chairman — The next name on the list is Brockway. 

Mr. Gilbert G. Brockway — Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee : 

The Chairman — Who do you represent? 

Mr. Brockway — I represent the teachers of the 18th District. 

Gentlemen of the Committee and Ladies and Gentlemen : I am here to urge 



115 

tonight upon the Committee, and also upon the fathers and mothers of the boys 
who are here present the need of some organization or instrument to correct and 
to remedy a condition which I believe every observant person must know exists. 

I refer to the employment of the graduates of the public school who are, for some 
reason, more often than others a financial reason, prevented from attending the high 
schools. It is a critical age for the boy, and it is a particularly hard time for that 
lad who upon graduating from the public school finds he is barred by financial reasons 
from entering the high school, or who having reached the statutory age and the re- 
quired grade, leaves the school to go to work and has not a job waiting for him. 

I believe a great deal of the juvenile delinquency in New York City is traceable 
to this condition resulting from a boy in this condition. I believe that some organiza- 
tion should be connected with every public school in the City of New York which 
would attempt to give to these boys or get for these boys a position. 

Lest you think that I am urging upon you a scheme which is not feasible, I 
wish to intrude a little of the personal experience of such an organization in Public 
School 179. There was a few years ago organized in that section what we call a 
Mutual Improvement Association, the avowed purpose of that organization being 
to obtain employment for the graduates of that school. The organization is now 
about five years old. Before that, one of the teachers in the school had personally 
done that kind of work of getting the boys positions, but had not organized it 
and called in the aid of the other teachers, the principal and the Local School 
Board for that purpose; but, as I say, about five years ago an organization was 
formed in that school, and in that five years it has succeeded in placing about 550 
or 600 boys. Had I been notified a little earlier of my call to speak here tonight I 
would have given exact" figures, but I am safe in approximating between 500 and 
600. 

I know, too, that there is proposed a bill to make this the function of the State, 
but such success as the Mutual Improvement Association of P. S. 179 has had is 
traceable entirely to the fact that it is connected with the public schools. The re- 
lationship of the boy to the teacher and the teacher to the boy makes that teacher 
the most accessible person to the boy to go to in his dilemma. He comes to us 
and tells us he needs a position. We know about that boy, as no one else, except 
the parents, know about him. When we recommend that boy to an employer we recom- 
mend him on the best of knowledge of the boy, such as no one else outside of the 
home can get ; and I find from the employer's standpoint I can beat out any private 
or public agency that can exist, because the employer asks, "Do you know this boy? 
How do you know him?" "Been a pupil of mine so many years, been under my 
personal supervision." If graduated, "I have know him since, he has come in to 
see me and. I have been interested in him so many years." 

Immediately that is a recommendation for that boy which makes the employer 
take him almost immediately, but more vital than that is the standpoint of the boy. 
The boy is willing to come to the teachers and the school from which graduated and 
brings his dilemma to them. He is vary willing to tell what he believes his short- 
comings to be. Usually he doesn't have to, because most of us know what they are, 
but usually he knows what is objectionable about himself. If he loses a position there 
is no one he is willing to go to quicker than to a teacher and tell him why and ask 
him for aid in remedying the defect in getting a new position. 

I urge upon this Committee that it urge in its report that some such or- 
ganization or instrument be advocated for every school. I think that which per- 
haps will recommend this scheme more than anything else, at least introduce it 
most favorably, is I believe it involves an expenditure of very little or no money. 

Thank you very much. (Applause). 

Mr. W. B. Allis — I represent the Parents Association of P. S. 166 and also 
speak as a probation officer in the city. 



116 

My special topic is a matter of mental defectives and I am speaking in behalf 
of us all, for one never knows quite where the lightning strikes. I remember that 
the eldest son of my own college president was a mental defective and that the 
eldest son of the most prominent lawyer in a neighboring County is a mental 
defective, and I know that I meet them every day in my own work, and I perhaps 
may preface what I am saying by saying that the present probation method is to 
study through to the scientific standpoint with respect to medical and physical de- 
fect every delinquent just as far as possible with, the present force. In other words, 
I am intensely interested in the question to-night, not from the standpoint of one 
coining here as a kicker, but more as a reconstructionist. 

I beg to differ from the gentleman who spoke a short time ago regarding the 
sub-normal classes. My own impression is, from casual study given to this sub- 
iect, and a rather intensive study in my own profesion, I think what we have 
most need of in this city is centralization and care of defectives in two central 
buildings and I want to enter a plea in behalf of the mental defectives in this city 
i'< ir the use of the old City College building on 23rd Street as a possible nucleus in 
properly, caring for these defective classes. 

We are agreed in one thing, that they need a great deal of shop work, a great 
deal of vocational work, and that most of the work in handling them and training 
them must come from those who are experts. 

The figures I have, you will remember, as studied by the Royal Commission 
in England and London, give anywhere from ;4 to 1 per cent, of the ordinary 
school population. That is, there are probably about eight or ten thousand mental 
defectives in our city, but if you take Doctor higher figures, about 

15,000 at the lowest figures; and my plea therefore is not so much for a continua- 
tion of the attempt to handle these defectives in a class in each school, but in 
centralizing, as we are doing, with these who are cripples. 

The plea was made a few moments ago that it is invidious to bring these 
defectives into a central school, because of the opprobrium which is cast upon the 
home itself. That point weighs very little in my own mind and my own experi- 
ence, for just the opposite is the fact: that these children ought to be taken away 
from their own neighborhood and from their own school where they are known 
and taken out in a central institution where, from the Principal down, there shall 
lie found those who shall be specially trained in handling these mental defectives 
and working out their problems 

We are also interested from the standpoint of the courts, for the reason thai 
it is intended to help save the city money. The court under the probation 

system to save money, and to substitute the treatment and oversight for 

the and institutional treatment, and this costs money and costs tre- 

mendously, and we think it is a waste for the city itself to pass on these defectives 
from the educational system without having them in some way taught in the process 
of education and secured, and if necessary, sent to permanent institutional care. 

So I want to urge especially upon your attention, gentlemen, that which un- 
doubtedly will come before you in your next budget, a request for 84 more classes 
of those who are sub-normal, and I also want to urge especially in the line of this 
reconstruction, of using money in different ways, taking one tack and another, the 
question of more scientific care of these youngsters, and I want to urge especially 
the importance in New York City of having some one in every school in the city 
to find just who these defectives are. They range from the moron to the feeble 
minded. My boy may be feeble minded. Yours may be. We never can tell from 
casual viewing of the child whether it is simply dull and retarded, or whether 
there is a real mental defect, whether it is of a high grade mental defect, one which 
■\ i' name as morons ; and the imperative need seems to be more money used in the 
early stage, as the nature of the problem really is ; and then also, as already urged, 



117 

the bringing of these children together in some such place as the old building on 
23rd Street, which at present is a dead loss, utterly out of use, and which from the 
standpoint of this subject easily could be used for curing for this class of children. 

I am sorry I haven't and figures to bring to you. I do not know that you may 
want figures, but the imperative need, it seems to me, is to find as soon as possible 
from a study of every one in the City what the defects are and how many children 
we have to deal with, and then some attempt at a scientific handling of the subject 
to bring them together where they can be handled together. 

Alderman McManus — Where can a boy be held for observation from the Chil- 
dren's Court? 

Mr. Allis — The City Court has their own pscychatrist and their own school of 
observation, but I am speaking especially of specialization. At Bellevue 

Alderman McManus — They have no State's detention place for observation. 

Mr. Allis— Yes. 

Alderman McManus — In Bellevue? 

Mr. Allis — Yes, a ward in Bellevue. They send them steadily from Bellevue. 
We have had observation there for the last year and a quarter. 

Alderman McManus — Do you know that what you have spoken about was in the 
Legislature last year and was beaten? 

Mr. Allies — Yes, sir; and another bill for such an institution for the care of these 
same types 

Alderman McManus — Don't you know that this present administration would not 
give the college down there? It is against that foundation principle. 

• Mr. Allis — I don't know that, but I am making a plea for a separate building. 

Alderman McManus — I want to say I started this thing in January, but I was 
up against the proposition that I could not get headway with it. Other people wanted 
to handle it. 

Mr. Allis — We can confine 

Alderman McManus — It comes home to me with a boy I know very well. There 
is no place in New York where a boy can go for observation. 

Mr. Allis — That is not a question of observation. I am making a plea for the 
study of every defective child at the present. 

Alderman McManus — If they are below normal where can you send them except 
to the Reformatory? 

Mr. Allis — That is the only place you can send them when they come before 
the courts of the State. My plea is to catch them before they come before the 
courts. That is the part for the Board of Education. 

Alderman McManus — There is no place in the City of New York where a boy 
a little below normal can go for observation for two or three days. 

Mr. Allis— Oh. yes. 

Alderman McManus — He cannot go to the truant school if he is below normal. 

Mr. Allis — Every child coming to the Children's Court, who has a suspicion of 
being mentally defective, is sent for observation. They have their psychatrist. 

Alderman McManus — In this sp'ecific case, the mother of this boy was told there 
was no place in New York to send the boy except to Bloomingdale Asylum. 

Mr. Allis — We do not send mental defects to the insane asylum. 

Alderman McManus — Have they an examination in the Children's Court? 

Mr. Allis — Yes, they do. 

Alderman McManus — What observation can they give a boy in actual oversight? 
say a boy comes before the Magistrate in the Children's Court and is sent before one 
of the doctors of the Children's Court for a week's observation. What observation 
can the doctors in the Children's Court give the boy, when they probably won't see 
the boy until the next day in court? 



118 

Mr. Allis — They give a week's observation, and that is sufficient. 

Alderman McManus — That is just looking over their glasses and asking a lot of 
questions, that is all. I know that. 

Mr. Allis — Then send them back to the Specializing Board of Bellevue for another 
observation for a week, and we consider that sufficient time to pass upon it. 

Alderman Collins — You know the Children's Court don't send boys to insane 
as\ lums. 

Air. Allis — Not to-day, no. 

Alderman McManus — I know of a case where they did, in this specific case. 

Mr. Allis — That is aside from the subject. 

Alderman McManus — The mother of this boy was told to commit that boy 
to Bloomingdale. 

Mr. Allis — I say if you cannot use the City College of New York, I hope you 
will find another institution. 

The Chairman — Davis is the next name on the list, the last speaker. 

Mr. Davis — Mr. Brockway covered that subject. 

The Chairman — There being no further speakers 

Mr. Murphey — Before we adjourn, in behalf of the general company, the parents 
in the School District No. 18, and many other parents not affiliated with School 
District 18, I would like to be permitted to thank the members of this Committee 
for their appearance here this evening and the earnest effort they have given to 
listen to us. We appreciate that this is not the most agreeable place to spend an 
evening, and we are more than grateful to you for coming here to-day. 

We also appreciate that this investigation is now in the period of ascertainment 
and we trust that in no long distanct date it will reach the period of accomplish- 
ment. (Applause). 

The Chairman — The next public hearing of the Committee on this matter will 
be held at Brownsville next Thursday night at 8.00 o'clock, April 27, 1917. 

Adjourned to April 27, 1917. 



MINUTES OF HEARING BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON GENERAL WEL- 
FARE OF THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN ON THE FOLLOWING MATTER: 

"No. 1242 — Request of the conference of organized labor to the Board to ho'd 
hearings and to invite the Board of Education and city officials to answer why 
the demands for better educational facilities have not been respected." 

Public School No. 84, corner of Stone Avenue and Glenmore Avenue, Brownsville, 
Brooklyn, N. Y„ April 27. 1917. 8 P. M. 

Present — Aldermen Robitzek, Chairman ; Collins, Ferguson, McManus, Fried- 
lander, Members of Committee on General Welfare. 

The Chairman — Public hearing continued of the Committee on Public Welfare to 
ci insider the request of organized conference of labor in regard to educational facili- 
ties in the City of New York. These hearings are being held by the Committee of 
the Board of Aldermen to obtain general information as to the situation in regard 
to educational facilities. 

If any one here has any personal complaint, such as was presented to the Com- 
mittee in Brooklyn some months ago, in regard to the action of a certain teacher, 
this Committee will not consider the matter, or if you have a complaint in regard 
to a claim that has been disallowed by the Board of Education, a personal grievance, 
we will not consider it. 

We will consider generally the situation in the Boroughs affecting the City of 
New York and particularly the Boroughs in which the hearing is held. 

Those desirous to speak will kindly enter their names. The first speaker I have 
received a request from to be heard this evening is Judge Edward A. Richards, on 
behalf of the High School Committee of One Hundred for East New York and 
Brownsville. 



119 

Mr. Edward A. Richards — Mr. Chairman and Members of the General Com- 
mittee on Welfare, Board of Aldermen, City of New York: 

I appear here to-night as Chairman of and on behalf of the High School Commit- 
tee of One Hundred for East New York and Brownsville, which Committee is com- 
posed of the leading citizens of this district, who are advocating the erection of a 
high school building on the site purchased for that purpose about five years ago. 

At that time there was reported by the Committee on High Schools and Train- 
ing Schools to the Board of Education that there were in the 26th Ward 12,000 stu- 
dents attending high schools in Brooklyn and Queens. I am informed that in the 
districts which we represent, the 39th and 40th School Districts in Brooklyn, there are 
about 35,000 children, attending the high schools in Brooklyn and Queens. If the 
report five years ago to the Board of Education by their own Committee was cor- 
rect, and if my information is correct now, that there are but five thousand children 
attending high school, it would seem that for some reason there has been a great 
falling off of the children from this section attending high schools, and I think 
the reason for it is quite apparent, when you note the fact that the nearest high 
school to this district is more than three miles distant. 

The recommendation of the Committee on High Schools to the Board of Edu- 
cation and the resolution for the purchase of a site was adopted five years ago by a 
unanimous vote in the Board of Education. For three years thereafter nothing 
whatever was done looking to the erection of a building on that site, which cost 
the city $84,000. 

In June, 1916, there was appropriated by the Board of Estimate ano 1 Appor- 
tionment at the request of the Board of Education the sum of $543,000 for a Luild- 
ing on this site, and plans and specifications were making, but the people of this 
district discovered that it was not the intention of the Board of Education to use 
the building on this high school site for high school purposes, but rather to build 
what is known as a combination school, only a few class rooms in which would 
have been used for high school students. 

The people of this district protested against any such building being put up 
on their high school site, with the result that the plans were stopped. 

When the Board of Education last March asked of the Board of Estimate and 
Apportionment an apropriation of about $6,000,000 for school buildings and addi- 
tions we felt certain that that report and that request would provide for a high 
school for our section, but to our amazement we found this provision in Item 4: 
"District No. 40"— 

The Chairman — AVhat page are you reading from? 

Mr. Richards — Page 3. "purchased site northeast of 174 for new building for 
which money was appropriated in June, 1916, thus leaving the Sheffield and Dumont 
Avenue sites free for high school purposes, $240,000." 

We felt when we read that,' that that was going to be followed by a re- 
quest to rescind this appropriation already made of $543,000, and use this $240,000 
out of that for an elementary school about two blocks from our high school site, 
and in this we were correct, for two Weeks later there was a resolution offered 
by Mrs. Mullan in the Board of Education, which was afterwards passed with 
nine dissenting votes, as follows : 

"Resolved, that the Board of Estimate and Apportionment be, and it is hereby 
requested to rescind the resolution adopted by it on June 9, 1916, appropriating 
$543,474 for the construction and equipment of a new public school building on the 
site owned by the city at Dumont, Pennsylvania and Sheffield Avenues, and to 
appropriate a smaller amount for the construction and equipment of a new school 
building on a site to be acquired northeast of Public School No. 174, Brooklyn " 

So that you see if the Board of Estimate and Apportionment grants this re- 
quest of the Board of Education the money heretofore appropriated for a build- 



120 

ing on our high school site is to be taken away from us and used for elementary 
school purposes ; and the high school site is going to continue, perhaps for another 
rive years, to remain vacant. 

If you gentlemen will look at a map prepared by the City Planning Commit- 
tee for the Board of Estimate and Apportionment, you will find that this high 
school site is within a stone throw of the heaviest congested district in Brooklyn. 
There is no district in Brooklyn, according to a report of the Committee of the 
Board of Estimate, that has so many people in it in so small an area as has this 
Brownsville district within three or four blocks of this proposed high school. If 
that is a fact, that 12.000 students from this district will require to attend these 
schools in remote parts of Brooklyn and Queens, since the nearest is three miles 
away, I say that that is not within a reasonable walking distance. Each child 
perhaps is required to spend SO cents a week for car fare and as much for luncheon, 
and taking 40 weeks as the school year, you will see that the parent of each high 
school child from this district is compelled to pay as much as $40 a year, which 
they should not be required to pay. Multiplying that by the figures reported to 
the Board of Education by their own Committee, 12,000, you will see that the people 
of this district when they had their children attending these high schools in other 
parts of the city, were required to pay as much as $480,000 a year for expenses 
which are unnecessary and which amount at that time was enough to pay for a 
high school, so that the people of this district, in addition to their taxes, and so 
forth, have been paying each year the cost of a high school building which they 
should have had five years ago. 

You know perhaps that the Bush wick high school or the Irving high school 
not far distant from here is the newest and largest high school in Brooklyn, to 
which most of the children, or the hrge majority. I think, of the children from 
the East New York and Brownsville section attend. In that high school today, 
although it has only been built three or four years, they have been required to 
have annexes, and now while thev have a seating capacity of only 2834. they have 
a register of 3691. Now, this is not only unfair to the people of this district, 
and to the children of this district, but it is unfair to the people of the Bushwick 
district to have their children crowded out by our children and to have our 
children have to go so far to attend their high school. 

The records show that in school districts 39 and 40 we are graduating each year 
about 2,900 high chool children. That is from an actual report taken in February of 
this vc;ir, and since the high school courses are three or four years, it is very easy to 
mt thai if this high school was built and in use to-day, we would not only fill it, but 
even fill the duplicating system, which is so much recommended now by the Committee 
on Education of the Board of Estimate. There could not be seating capacity for the 
children from this section. 

So we are advocating that perhaps in addition to this Dumont Avenue site that 
you also recommend and urge that the Truants' Home site down on Jamaica Avenue, 
just beyond the Borough line, might very well be used at once for some of our high 
school students, and we believe that if that were done and the Dumont Avenue site 
built on, that it would still be found that that Truants' Home site was necessary to 
accommodate high school children in the district. 

In five years School Districts 39 and 40 have increased their elementary school 
register nearly 25 per cent., and if we have increased our elementary school register 
to that extent, doubtless we have increased our high school students to that extent, or 
we would increase them if they had the proper facilities near at hand. 

We want to call your attention to one argument which is being used in the Board 
of Education, more especially by the Committee on Education of the Board of Esti- 
mate and Apportionment, and that is that relief can be had by duplicating sessions 
of the high schools. We contend that our trouble is not so much with the overcrowd- 



121 

ing as it is with the long distances that our children have got to travel to get to these 
high schools, and that duplicating sessions will do us no good, but rather will require 
our children to travel back and forth in the rush hours, in the already too much over- 
crowded railroad trains, and we believe that it is unfair to them, and that it is 
morally unfit for our young men and our young girls to be traveling in these railroad 
trains at crowded times. 

We are told continually that we are entitled to this high school, but that it is so 
expensive that if it is given to us our already too high tax rate will be increased. 
Nobody knows, I think, better than the people of this district, the burden of the 
great rate of taxation and the exorbitantly high valuations on our real estate for tax 
purposes, but we want to say to you, and we want to say more expressly to the Board 
of Estimate and Apportionment, that if city money is to be spent, since we have got 
to pay it, we want a voice in saying how it is to be spent, and we want to call your 
attention to the fact that since these five years when our site was selected and when 
the Board of Education by a unanimous vote recognized our demand for a high 
school, the city administration has spent for an elaborate court house site in the Bor- 
ough of Manhattan, for which we care nothing, $17 ,000,000, or enough to buy 17 
schools for Brownsville. (Applause.) And while we recognize the necessity of sea- 
shore tracts and seashore sites for hospitals and the like, and would not for one 
moment argue against them, we do contend that if $2,000,000 can be spent in Coney 
Island for a seashore park, and $1,300,000 for a site at Rockaway Park, if we must 
have these things to the exclusion of our high schools, if the people of this section 
are consulted, thev will say that if we must have one or the other, give us the high 
schools first, because we believe that they are very much more needed than even 
seashore parks or playgrounds. 

We do not know what this Committee can do for us, because we know that the 
Board of Aldermen are being rapidly shorn of their power, as are all of our direct 
representatives, but we do hope that you will see in the brief which I have presented 
to you and which is much more elaborate than the argument I can make now, the 
fairness of our contention, and the need for a high school in this district, and that 
you will resolve to request of the Board of Education and of the Board of Estimate 
and Apportionment that they do make a sufficient appropriation at once for a high 
school building for the district in which we live and in which we are very much 
interested. (Applause). 

The Chairman — Alderman Friedlander wants to ask the Judge a question, if it is 
proper. 

Mr. Richards — Yes sir. 

Alderman Friedlander — Has the property which you say remained vacant returned 
any revenue whatsoever to the city? 

Mr. Richards — Received no revenue whatsoever. 

Alderman Friedlander — It is entirely vacant? 

Mr. Richards — Yes, sir; entirely vacant for years and cost $85,000. 

The Chairman — Will you submit a copy of your brief to our stenographer? 

Mr. Richards— Yes, sir. (Files brief). I am very glad to do so now. 

The Chairman — So that it appears on the minutes. 

Mr. Richards—Yes, sir. 

The Chairman — The next speaker is Mr. Frederick Campbell. Just state whom you 
represent . 

Mr. Frederick Campbell — Being as I am a member of the Local Board, I have two 
aims. 

The Chairman — Each speaker will be limited to 10 minutes. 

Mr. Campbell — I do not know as I can elaborate, too, hut I have prepared this for 
the short space of time I have to read. 

The Chairman — We just want you to submit it then. It will appear in writing in 
the printed record. 



122 

Mr. Campbell — Taking reference to Canarsie School, I believe the Chairman of the 
School Committee of Canarsie would like to have a few minutes, and then I can 
proceed. 

The Chairman — Go ahead. 

Mr. Campbell — As Chairman of Local School Board District 39, assigned to P. 
S. US in Canarsie, I have been requested by the parents 

The Chairman — Does that include this district? 

Mr. Campbell — Yes, this district. I have been requested to present to you and 
bring before your attention certain deplorable conditions in regard to the school 
facilities surrounding Public School 115. 

The main frame building, if I may ask you to follow me, may be by looking at 
these photographs. 

The Chairman — Are you going to permit these to remain with the Committee? 

Mr. Campbell — I will. 

The Chairman — As exhibits. Who is the principal of the school, Mr. Squiers 
desires to know. 

Mr. Campbell — That is Mr. Callahan. There is the main building. 

The Chairman — Your exhibits are you referring to now? 

Mr. Campbell — The one showing the main building. 

The Chairman — And they are all small buildings. I do not know which you 
would classify as main. 

Mr. Campbell — The main. They call this one the main. 

The Chairman — It looks like a hothouse. 

Mr. Campbell — 1 am glad you think so, Mr. Chairman. 
Vlderman Friedlander — Is that a school? 

Mr. Campbell — That is a school. I do not doubt that the Committee smiles at 
thi e photographs. 

(Three photographs marked exhibits 1, 2 and 3 of this date.) 

Mr. Campbell The main building was erected there in 1890 by the Town of Flat- 
lands ami was turned over to the City of New York, and since that time the City of 
\i -u York has placed a lot of those portable structures surrounding it in a sort of a 
line around the main building. 

The Chairman— Are these all occupied as schools? 

Mr. Campbell — School rooms. 

The Chairman — I am talking now of Exhibit 2. 

Mr. Campbell — They arc all school rooms, outside of those marked there as 
Teachers' Room, which is built over a cesspool. 

The Chairman— Which is the Teachers' Room? I see they are marked here. On 
this exhibit you have marked to show what are those — are those all schools? 

Mr. Campbell — Those are all schools. 

The Chairman — Here- is a building that has no windows, apparently; is that 
a school ? 

Ml Campbell— That is a school room. This is a school room. 

The Chairman— Are the windows on the other side? 

Mr. Campbell— Probably. Please note those wooden structures are placed on 
the ground, that is on wooden posts without any space between the floor and the 
cold ground. 

I here are no sanitary improvements in these portable buildings and the children 
are obliged to go in the yard to go to get a drink of water. It is supplied through 
a single tap and as I have seen them go down there and hold their hands under 
the tap and drink in that fashion. 

The Chairman — I do not want to take up your time, but I want to ask one 
question : How many children attend those schools or series of schools, or just 
connected schools? 



123 

Mr. Campbell — I will give you that. 

Alderman Haubert — Maybe you are going to come to that in your address. 

Mr. Campbell — I will come to that. 

The Chairman — Go ahead. 

Mr. Campbell — These buildings are not even filled between the studdings, but 
are ceiled inside and outside by light frame materials, and they rock in the high 
winds prevalent near Jamaica. Bay. If buildings of that character were offered 
for rental for school purposes to the City, I do not think, you will agree with 
me, the necessary permit would be granted, as the same are a direct violation of 
the Building Codes, and the by-laws of the City of New York regulating public 
buildings. They are not even filled in. 

The Chairman — Who erected these, the City? 

Mr. Campbell — I presume so. 

The Chairman — On City property? 

Mr. Campbell — On City property. Right along the main building on the south, 
the City in 1906, purchased the site with the evident intention of building a new 
school, and that was in 1906. The need was urgent then, and it is more keenly 
felt now, 11 years hence. If nothing else, the health of the teachers and pupils 
demand a new school building. 

In the Winter months, it -is almost — it is terrible the conditions the children 
have to undergo for instruction. 

In 1916 a census was conducted by the Parents Association and disclosed the 
fact in that time there were 658 children in the school district under the age of 
16. The present total register is 322, with sittings for but 198. 

Our Local School Board's last semi-annual report includes the following recom- 
mendations : 

"We desire again to call attention to the unwhole conditions in P. S. 115 in 
Canarsie? 

Here the City owns a large plot upon which said portable rooms without cellar 
space, on the cold ground, draughty, heated by stoves and with toilet facilities 
that are little less than inhumane. 

The children of the upper grades past the 6-A grade must past this set of 
structures and go nearly a mile further up the road to P. S. 114. Recently the 
parents appealed for relief and we earnestly endorsed their request. 

In this connection we quote from a report made by District Superintendent 
Nicholson to Associate Superintendent Shallow : 

P. S. 115 is a group of detached wooden buildings there are no facilities for 
the communal advantages of assemblies. Toilet facilities are atrocious. 

There 'is ample ground lying idle to the south of the main building. I believe 
the solution of the problem would be the erection of a one story structure have 
two parallel rows of three classrooms each with folding doors. 

We could then care for the children for whom these citizens appeal. We 
could have an assembly room, a principal's office, a teacher's room and proper 
lavatories." 

The Local School Board's recommendation and District Superintendents Nichol- 
son's report elicited this reply from the General Board : 

The matter of replacing P. S. 115 was considered when the last corporate 
stock was made and being prepared, but on account of the limited amount allowed 
for new buildings, the item was not reached. This is very unsatisfactory and 
does not insure any future favorable action." 

Consider please that Canarsie pays $200,000 a year in real estate taxes alone. It is 
quite evident that this section is considered by the City from the standpoint of 
contributing to the City's treasury without regard to adequate return. 



124 

This is not fair treatment to the descendants of those Civil War veterans that 
Canarsie, on the first call for volunteers by President Lincoln, sent in numbers greater 
than its voting population at that time. This is an historical fact. Their sons and 
grandsons were at the front in the Spanish American War and in the present crisis 
Canarsie will enlist more than its quota. 

I want to thank the Committee for its patience and also for the opportunity of 
filing this brief and I don't know if you have Mr. Rev. Meyer on your list of 
speakers 

The Chairman — I think his name does appear. 

Mr. Campbell — Then I can proceed with P. S. 135? 

The Chairman — Go ahead. 

Mr. Campbell — 1 would like to have Mr. Meyer speak. I would not want to 
disconnect that. 

The Chairman — Is it in connection with the same subject? 

Mr. Campbell — It is another school. 

The Chairman — Canarsie? 

Mr. Campbell — Canarsie. 

The Chairman — There is a gentleman who has requested to be called at once 
as he wants to get away. 

Mr. Hembler, I believe, principal of one of the schools. 

Mr Hembler — Gentlemen, I am principal of one of the schools in this district. 

The Chairman — What school are you principal of?. 

Mr. Hembler— P. S. 165. It is the corner of Hopkinson avenue, and this 
school is to be organized under the duplicate so-called Gary plan in a short time, 
and I understand there is quite some doubt in the minds of a number of people as to 
the advisability of doing that, and if you will pardon me, I will say just a word or two. 

It seems to me that there is not anything we can do for the children in the 
u,i\ of giving them opportunities for larger education, and only now, the only place 
that 1 know of that gave the children the same opportunities that the Gary plan 
affords are the swell selected schools for ethical culture and the Horace Mann 
School and the Spy School. Those schools, as you know, are attended by children 
Oi wr\ wealthy folk and they are schools that in addition to academic work include 
drill work, in metal, woodwork, ironwork, machinery, all sorts of things, the kind 
"i things that make the mouths of our children water, but we could not incorporate 
them in our public schools, because the city could never afford these facilities; and 
as I say they make our mouths water all the time for these buildings, and I 
certainly feel that the children here should have them as well as in other parts of 
the City, that they should be given some of these advantages. We could not give 
Our children in Brownsville, Public School 50. these class rooms, carpenter, milli- 
nery, printing, and a hundred other kinds of shops that we think of, but if this 
system does nothing else but give the children of Brownsville and the poor 
children of East New York and even the middle class children of the City, the 
same principles that the wealthy children of the Ethical Culture School and the 
Horace Mann School and the Spy School are getting now. I think we ought rise and 
r< joice; and 1 for my part, would like to just present this thought. 

It is not just simply a question of economy to my mind. I do not care a snap 
for that. To my mind if the City spent all its money for education, yet it would 
no! be enough. I do not believe there is another item in the City budget that is any- 
where near as important as the item of education. In a democracy like ours, when 
the future of the country depends on the intelligence of the citizens, there is not 
any amount that can be too much, so I say the ecenomy part does not concern me at 
all, but if we can't have a regular public school with all the opportunities we are 
looking for for our children under the present system, and if the Gary system does 



125 

offer us the same academic opportunities, as far as these fine chances for children are 
concerned, to do things, to learn things, by all means give us the duplicate plan. 

I have studied the duplicate idea, and probably studied it before a great many 
people ever heard of it. I recall 12 years ago, Mr. Wirt started in a magazine article 
in McClure's describing it, which attracted my attention to it then, and I have been 
following it up for some time reading reports and enthusing on the subject. I feel 
more convinced than ever that the children of the people of the public schools of New 
York are getting a tremendous advantage when they are receiving the duplicate plan. 

It may have its problems, like anything new. I expect that when I start in my 
school under the duplicate plan, there will be difficulties, just as there are in the 
present day, mechanical difficulties, the problem of the program of suiting children 
to seat and room, which can all be smoothed out by any person who has had any 
experience, who knows administrative work, and knows very well what all these 
problems are, but it seems to me they are very slight and insignificant in comparison 
with the great advantages that this system will give us. So I would like to add 
my feeble words to the chorus of demands — I would not say demands — to the 
chorus of suggestions for the duplicate plan, the so-called Gary plan, that it be given 
a trial, because it means the only promise for giving our children some of the 
finest things in the way of education. (Applause). 

The Chairman — The next speaker is the Chairman of the High School Committee 
of One Hundred of East New York and Brownsville, and member of the Local 
School Board, Mr. Baruch Miller. 

Mr. Baruch Miller — I just wish to take the liberty of correcting the Chairman. 
I do not want to assume any honor that does not belong to me. I am not the Chair- 
man of the Committee of One Hundred. Judge Richards is the President of the 
Committee of One Hundred. I am the Chairman of the Executive Committee. 

The Chairman — I stand corrected. 

Mr. Miller — However, I have the honor of being the Chairman of the School 
Board of this district, but I want to assure the members of the Committee that I 
express the sentiment of the Brownsville people when I say that we feel it has a 
distinct honor in having a Committee of the Board of Aldermen come over here 
to Brownsville, especially on an evening like this, to listen to some of our grievances. 

I want to say that we feel deeply obligated to Judge Richards for having taken 
up this work, because it requires, and I know from my experience of the last six 
years, that it requires hard effort to bring finally the success, and I want to say to 
you that the Brownsville people will be very much obligated to your Committee if 
you will emphasize in your report, whatever your report may be on other subjects, 
emphasize the needs of high school for our boys and girls that live here in Brownsville 
and East New York. I am not going to go into the details, for I understand Judge 
Richards has covered that, and that he has prepared an exhaustive brief of facts 
and figures. 

I merely say that I would like your Committee not to forget when you come to 
draw your reports and make your recommendation, not to forget us in so far as 
high school accommodations, are concerned. 

About the Gary system : Our Local School Board in this district has not taken 
any action whatever officially in reference to that subject. I want to say there are ■ 
many schools in this district now being Garyized, and I do not intend to eithe>- 
criticize cr commend them. We are waiting for results. We will wait and see how 
this works out. 

We leave that entirely to you and what you hear from different people going 
around the city, the hearings, and you use your best judgment in reference to that 
subject, but there is one subject that I wish to cover tonight. 

It affects a great many people, and yet it affects them in such a way that you 



126 

do not hear much ahout it in the newspapers and you do not hear much about it 
on the street or anywhere else, because it is a delicate subject for any family to talk 
about at all, and yet it comes to me and to the other members of the School Board, 
and it comes to us so frequently, about the experience in many cases that I see 
that are so sad and frightful that I have made up my mind to publicly talk on the 
subject. 

I divide it into two groups, two parts : One of the parts, that is the first part, 
the one I touched the other night, down at Borough Hall, when you had your meeting, 
but 1 want just briefly to repeat it briefly as it affects a great many people in Browns- 
ville, and it has to date, that we are unable to help them at all, and by your investiga- 
tion of this method you may be able to get the Board of Education to improve upon 
it, or to have some law passed that will do away with the evil that now exists. 

We are here in Brownsville plain, ordinary people, many of us are poor financially, 
but I want to say that we are proud to say that we are rich in having in our schools 
the best of pupils in the city, and I am not saying it merely because I want to pat 
myself on the back, because I live here, but from experience that I have had, from 
what we have heard from principals of high schools after our boys have left our 
schools in Brownsville and gone into the high schools, and even afterwards, in college, 
we have heard from the principals of those institutions telling us how high on our 
lists our boys generally get, and how many prizes they get away with. That is a 
fact. There are hard working boys and girls in the schools here. I do not want 

ive all the credit to the boys and girls. There is a great deal of credit due to 
our teachers and principals here. 

However, we must look for some of these boys and girls after they go out of the 
school and it is within the scope of our school system. You take, as I said, our 
ordinary family. They have got a girl. They don't know what particular thing to 
do J whether they should send her into a shop or whether to send her to college to 
give her a higher education, but a great many in this neighborhood, as in other 
neighborhoods, have decided to send their daughters to training school, to become 
t( a' hers. 

Oh. I don't have to tell you that here in Brownsville there are many women that 
scrub floors, take in washing, and I know the names of some of them, and pay for all 
the expenses of maintaining and supporting that girl during those years in training 
school. 

Now, you can imagine what it means for a mother to be working away and even 
for the father, who perhaps earns only a few dollars for his hard work, expecting 
and waiting for the day her daughter finally should get a license and begin to teach 
and begin to support herself, and perhaps help by turning in a few dollars to the 

ury of the bouse, of the family. 

li happens frequently after they have gone into training school for two years, 
graduated from High School, and have gone into training school and have gotten a 
diploma from training school and graduated, and perhaps with honor, and everybody 
is happy at home and Jennie has finally reached her goal, she has finally reached the 
time when she will he able to help along with the family, and she is called to an 
examination which is commonly known as the Maxwell examination. 

Well, I don't find any fault with the Maxwell examination, but after that exam- 
ination it happens that she may pass the highest on the list in the written examination, 
and after the written examination she is called to an oral examination, and the oral 
examination — there is — so -far as I know — there is no records kept. 

A girl is simply called before an examiner and he talks to her a little while, 
talks to her five minutes, asks her to read, tells her to take the next one in, and 
the next thing that family hears the girl cannot get her license because of a defect 
in speech, because of some foreign dialect or accent and she is absolutely back the 
same as when she started to go to training school. 



127 

The Chairman — Pardon me, for interrupting you, but you presented these ideas 
before this Committee in Brooklyn? 
Mr. Miller — Yes. 

The Chairman — We have got them on the records. Unless there is something 
new, there is no use of repeating it and encumbering the record with a lot of repeti- 
tion. 

Mr. Miller — Yes. I am leading up to it, because originally I should have stated 
it here. 

Now, as I said, there ought to be some method, whereby as I suggested at the 
last time that that could be eliminated and that is, before they go into the training 
school there are some that have the accent, and before they get to training school, 
then the Board of Examiners should find out whether this girl has any defect and 
thereby eliminate that by the time she gets into the training school and if she has 
that accent, don't permit her to go into training school and have that oral examination. 
Now, I am leading up to the second point. 

The Chairman — One of the Aldermen here suggests that if at the entrance to the 
training school an oral examination was held the applicant might be disqualified. 
Mr. Miller — Yes. 

The Chairman — And then of course your theory would be I believe, that she 
would not then undertake the course in the training school? 
Mr. Miller — That is right. 

The Chairman — But the Alderman suggests that an applicant who would be dis- 
qualified at tire entrance of training course for an oral examination might by the 
taking of the training school course, she would receive, would take away the defect 
and be able to pass the oral examination at the conclusion of the training school 
course. 

Mr. Miller — My suggestion is this : That they all have before going to the 
training school a try-out. Those that pass that go right on without any question. 
Those who do not pass, if they have an accent that is absolutely hopeless and cannot 
be corrected, and there are some who have that and cannot be corrected, don't let 
them go in. If he has a case that may be corrected, let them go into a special school 
and let the principal in that training school especial train them in that two years. 

And another thing, if they are told that they have a defect and are permitted to 
go into training school they go in with their eyes open, and if they are turned down 
two years after they cannot complain or find fault with anybody. They take that 
risk. 

The Chairman — That does not answer the question. 

Alderman Squiers — The graduate of a high school a boy or a girl is of sufficient 
age, if the'y- are of average intelligence, and of course they must be. to determine 
what defects they have themselves. They must have found that out in a four 
year high school course. 

My thought is this : A boy or girl who has reached that age, they have got 
to use some judgment of their own to determine what vocation in life they are 
going to take up. My thought is this : That a boy or girl who must necessarily 
be more or less .cognizant of a defect will say: I will cure this defect in the' 
training school course, but they would be absolutely disqualified on entering the 
training school, but be thoroughly qualified upon leaving the training school two 
years afterward. 

In my experience I have seen that very thing done. 

I do not know whether I have gotten your thought, perhaps I have not, and 

perhaps I have gone off on a tangent, but I have been making a concrete suggestion. 

Is it your suggestion that there shall be a board, some committee, to give these 

graduates that are going into the training school an oral examination in order 

to advise them as to whether they have a defect or not. 



128 

Mr. Miller — No. It is my suggestion that some board of examiners of the 
Board of Education, who are now examining, I want to call your attention, that 
when 1 say a defect in speech in the sense that I am now talking 

Alderman Squiers — You mean an accent ? 

Mr. .Miller — Is not a defect of speech that you or I could determine and could 
find out. It requires an expert with a fine trained ear. Why, the girl can never 
tell herself whether she has anything. She is able to read and she is told to 

"ing." I am only referring to what would require a very fine ear. I could 
not tell. Perhaps you could, but the ordinary person could not be able to tell. 

The Chairman— It is merely a matter of pronunciation that they object to. 

Alderman Squiers— Not necessarily, if you pick out a defect in accent. 

Mr. Miller— No. They could find that out. 

But here is a case where they failed in the oral examination. What is the 
matter with the training school? Why don't they train them, or why don't they 
point it out to them that there is no use of going to the oral examination, to the 
Maxwell examination? It is either too strict or they should be told in advance. 

I think it will harm nobody. It will help a great many to have these girls 
examined before they go to training school because if they have no accent, or 
if they have any accent they will improve. 

Alderman Squiers — I am probably not as familiar with the methods of school 
teaching in high schools as I should be. I am busy outside, but there is a depart- 
ment df Elocution in the high school, isn't there, under an elocutionary teacher, 
or a teacher of English? 

Mr. Miller— Yes. 

Vlderman Si|uiers— That is a department where they are taught to speak and 
read right? 

Mr. Miller— Yes. 

Alderman Squiers— Now it is my thought that if the teacher of that department 
is observing, and I have no doubt they are, that they are highly efficient from my 
knowledge of the high schools in this City, why they would point out to these 
boys the defects, where they are weak, where their weaknesses ar, and advise them 
how the weaknesses may be cured, those which you speak of, and it is possible 
they could be corrected by someone under the elocutionary training. Isn't that 
done in the main in the high school? I mean, most of these boys and girls in 
the department are told by their instructors what they must do to overcome any 
such defects as you have mentioned' 

Mr. Miller— No. For this reason: The teachers and principals in the high 
school do not assume that all these boys and girls will go and become teachers and 
will evei come before these Maxwell examiners. This is a very unusual and very 
severe oral examination, an'' ordinarily if a boy goes on to college and takes up 
some profession where they read, they may even make a fine speech, yet there 
is something there that even the principal of a high school or the teacher in the 
high school will not discover, but that would appear to these examiners who are 
trained for that purpose, just as soon as they read one line. They will read down 
one line, make a note of it, and you will go home and be informed that you have 
failed to pass the oral examination. 

After they have passed. Let us forget this trouble about the oral. Let us 
say all right, he has passed. What happens then, and that is what I want to call 
your attention to and would like to see remedied. What happens then? They are 
placed on a list, and I can name you a number of poor girls, who after they have 
passed with the highest mark and gotten their licenses, are compelled to go around 
for two years looking for a job in some cheap store, and yet there are hundreds 
and hundreds of boys and girls who are substituting in the day classes. 



129 

I cannot understand, and never could understand if there is a vacancy and 
you use a substitute, why you should not appoint that substitute, why not take 
him down the list, and if there are 200 substitutes, why not appoint 200 teachers? 

In the first place, you know you have had the experience with boys and girls 
when they know a teacher is a substitute and they cannot keep it from them, you 
may be able to keep it from them a week or two weeks, but they find out, and 
if they know' that you cannot control them as. a permanent teacher does, so it does 
not conduce to discipline. 

In the second place why should you have these girls going around for two 
years and looking for another job and subsequently two years later be called to 
teach scholars? It is ridiculous. 

If you fail in the June examination you have to take it over again in 6 months? 
Why? Because you have forgotten it in 6 months. If they pass the written ex- 
amination and fail in the oral examination, then if they want to try again, they 
have to pass the written again. Why should she be asked to pass the written again? 
Because six months have passed and you have forgotten, and yet she is called 
two years later, and they have spent those two years in going around for two 
years, working in shops, and they are put in schools when they have positively for- 
gotten : They are put at the head of a class. 

Why not appoint them right away? They can appoint 200. Is it because they 
don't want to put on a teacher whom they would have to pay more than a sub- 
stitute? I guess that is what it is, but it is not right. 

The Chairman — Mrs. Jacob Schulken. Do you represent any association? 

Mrs. Jacob Schulken — I represent the Parents and Teachers Association of 
Public School 35. 

The Chairman — Where is that? 

Airs. Schulken— Church Avenue and 49th Street. I want just to add a little 
more to what Mr. Campbell has said. 

Alderman Drescher — Rugby School. 

Airs. Schulken — I represent the aggrieved parents of Rugby. I am one of the 
indignant mothers. And why indignant? Because we have been clamoring for 
new school houses for these last many years. 

A great many promises have been made to us, and all those promises were not 
fulfilled. 

You gentlemen are all very anxious to have military training in the public 
schools, and in our little shack of a schoolhouse we have not even a gymnasium in 
which to train our children, in order to give them a proper physical training. 

You talk of scientific cooking in the home. In our little school we have not 
an adequate room in which to keep teach the girls the domestic sciences. 

The Chairman— How many are there in the school you refer to. 

Mrs. Schulken— Not quite 500. Mr. Campbell has given all these facts. 

Mr. Campbell— I have not gone into those facts. 

Alderman Drescher— Is that school on Church Avenue? 

Mrs. Schulken— And East 49th Street. 

A Voice — Thje chicken coop. 

Alderman Drescher— They call it a match box? 

Mrs. Schulken— Yes. 

Alderman Drescher— You know that was attached to school 

Mrs. Schulken— It was taken from P. S. S4. 

Alderman Drescher — From here. 

Mrs. Schulken— Yes, shipped down. 

Alderman Drescher— We sent it down on logs. 

Mrs. Schulken— It was damaged. It must have been a bad job, because it 
amounted to very little when we got it. 



130 

Alderman Drescher — Some of the boys around here I saw push it down. 

Mrs. Schulken — You take it as a joke, ladies and gentlemen, but to us it is a 
very serious matter, because we have to send our boys and girls to that shack or match- 
box I believe they call it, to receive their instruction. 

The sanitation is very poor. The rooms are overcrowded. 

There are two grades in a room, with a session studying arithmetic and the other 
geography, and when the children get home some of them know neither geography 
nor arithmetic. There is no detriment on the teachers, they do their very best, but 
little minds get muddled when they hear so much at one time. 

There is no large playground, almost not at all. There is not even an assemble 
room for singing in the morning, as they do in this beautiful auditorium. At gradua- 
tion they have got to go to a little church around the corner. That little church around 
the corner, if it refused, there would be no graduation exercises. 

Then the teachers have no proper rest rooms. 

The toilets are in poor condition. 

The Rugby children have one thing over and above the other children in the 
Borough of Brooklyn, and that is they can study arithmetic and astronomy at the 
same time. (Laughter.) Can any one of you in the audience guess how that is done? 

Alderman Squiers — There must be a leak in the roof. 

Mrs. Schulken — You see, when they are doing arithmetic on the desks, they can 
look through the chinks in the roof to the sky. You get me' 

Alderman Squiers — I know. I was brought up in that kind of a school. 

Mrs. Schulken — And those poor children are shifted from one desk to another. 
Many a day my boy came home with his face dripping wet, his waist stained, and all 
soaked. The teacher was doing her best, but there was not much space there to be 
dry in 

It is a very serious matter to' us. and we have been clamoring for a number of 
years, A number of you gentlemen have made promises and they have not been ful- 
filled. 

Alderman Friedlander — Pardon me. Did you say "a number of us gentlemen"? 
What gentleman made the promises? 

Mrs. Schulken — They have not made promises to me, but to workers who have 
preceded me. 

Alderman Friedlander — I understood you to say "a number of you gentlemen 
have made a number of promises." 

Mi- Schulken—] beg your pardon. I did not mean you directly. You are from 
the Local School Board? 

Mr. Miller — Can the lady give way for just one moment? 
I: i 'hairman -No one interrupted you. If you want to say anything you can 
say it at the conclusion. 

Mr. Miller — "You gentlemen represent the Local School Board," don't forget I 
want id answer that. That cannot go without being answered. 

Schulken — Was 1 right in saying it, or wrong? 1 understand you are a 
committee of the Local School Board. Are you not? 

The Chairman — No. We will correct that. 

Mrs. Schulken — Please correct me. I do not know. 

The (hairman — We are a committee of the Board of Aldermen, the Committee 
on General Welfare of the Board of Aldermen, who are investigating not only in this 
district, but throughout the City into school conditions in the City of New York. 

Mrs. Schulken — This is the first meeting I have attended, and I didn't know, but 
I know one thing that is certain, that we must have new schoolhouses in Rugby. 

We are tired of fighting for it, and we have come to a situation where we demand, 
because we think the City owes it to us. We are paying rent and taxes just as 
promptly as any other residents of the City. Why we are neglected is a question. 



131 

Why our children are neglected, why our children are treated like stepchildren is a 
question. 

We have been fighting for years for a new school house. Now we say we demand 
it. We say that if you do not give us a school house in the very near future we are 
going to go to stronger measures. 

This is not mere talk of one woman — you may be smiling about it — but you can 
rely upon it, they are going to take them. 

The Chairman — The next speaker is Mr. Byron Q. Baker. 

Alderman Drescher — I would like to ask Mrs. Schulken a question. Whereabouts 
do you reside, madam, may I ask? The reason I ask this question, you see I do not 
want to be too personal, but you are in my district. Do you know who the alderman 
ii of that district? 

Mrs. Schulken — Mr. Drescher. 

Alderman Drescher — Drescher is my name. That is right. Are you aware of the 
fact that there is an appropriation of $543,000 that is already appropriated of the 
corporate stock to give you a school down there? 

Mrs. Schulken — Will you give me another few minutes to speak? 

Alderman Drescher — That is up to the Chairman. 

Mrs. Schulken — Will you give me another few minutes to speak? 

The Chairman — You may. 

Alderman Drescher — Are you aware of the fact that that is so? Come right up 
and let us have a friendly talk. 

Mrs. Schulken — Thank you. I did not get in half I wanted to say. 

Alderman Drescher — I am glad I refreshed your memory. 

Mrs. Schulken — Thank you ever so much. 

Alderman Drescher — I want you to know while this meeting is held in Browns- 
ville I heart is in Rugby the same as in Brownsville and other parts of the district. 
There has been a false impression drawn by the Chairman, and I think a very intel- 
ligent constituency is exemplified in you. 

The Chairman — Let her answer your question. 

Alderman Drescher — You know that we have been striving here — when I say 
you, I mean you and myself and the rest of the neighbors down there, to get an ap- 
propriation, do you not, to get an appropriation, and that $543,000 was appropriated? 

Mrs. Schulken — I am fully aware of the fact. 

Alderman Drescher — The only thing is they have not begun to dig. 

Mrs. Schulken — I will tell you where the trouble is. 

The Chairman — Let the lady answer the question. 

Mrs. Schulken — You have selected a site just a mile from where the school is 
wanted. 

Alderman Drescher — I did not select the site. 

Mrs. Schulken — And that the parents do not want to send our boys and girls a 
mile back and forth (applause). Nor do we want to pay their carfares because we 
feel that after paying in rent and taxes we are entitled to a school building right in 
our midst (applause). 

Have I answered your question? 

Alderman Drescher — You have, and I am glad to know it. You live east of 
this proposed site, don't you? 

Mrs. Schulken — I live on East 53rd street? 

Alderman Drescher — Is that east or west of the proposed site? 

Mrs. Schulken — East. 

Alderman Drescher — And this school — they are trying to pm. it over in Mr. 
Squiers' district, I presume? 

Mrs. Schulken — On East 34th Street. I do not know where this gentleman lives. 
That is a mile from the vicinity of where we want that school. 



132 

Alderman Drescher— And you want this Committee to recommend that this school 
lie erected in my district, that is where you live? 

Mrs. Schulken— We need a school there too. Leave that and give us another one. 

VIderman Drescher — I may have a school there too. 

Mrs. Schulken— This is very important. We have been fighting for many years 
school house in our district, and you have selected a site over there which is 
a mile away. 

\ Merman Squiers— Where do you think that school ought to be built, the general 
location : 

Mrs. Schulken— Where we have it just now is not a good one, because the Church 
line car runs right on the corner. The noise disturbs the classes and their studies. 
In my estimation a proper location for that site would be on 48th Street between 
Tilden and Snyder Avenues. 

The Chairman — How far is that away from the present location ? 

Mrs. Schulken — Where the school is just now? 

The Chairman — Yes. 

Mrs. Schulken— Just a matter of three or four blocks. You mean from where 
the one is just now ? 

The Chairman — Yes. 

Mrs. Schulken— Three or four blocks. 

Alderman Drescher— The school on -ISth Street between Tilden and Snyder? 

The Chairman — Three or four blocks from the present location of this school? 

Mrs. Schulken — Yes. 

The Chairman — Do you know whether or not the City owns the site upon which 
the school is now erected? 

Mrs. Schulken— No, the City does not. It is rented from one year to another, 
and at anj time the o not want us as a tenant we have to get out, and we 

will have no school 

Mr. Miller — Will you give us half a minute on those Rugby sites, half a minute? 

The Chairman— We will have to give time to them too, you have had your time. 
It is not fair to take up their time. 

Mr. Miller — Just half a minute is all I wish. 

The Chairman — When the other speakers are through I will do so. I gave you 
over 20 minuti 

Mr. Miller — I want to say half a minute, not any more. 

The Chairman — We "ill give it to you at the conclusion of the meeting. I do 
not want to le unfair, but it is not fair to the other speakers. 

Mr. Byron W. Baker — I feel it a great pleasure to be permitted to take a minute 
of your time In speak of the new organization 

The Chairman — Do you represent any organization? 

Mr. Baker—] represent 156. 

The Chairman — Where is that?" 

Mr. Baker — Grafton Street ami Suiter Avenue. 

The Chairman — How far is that from here? 

Mr. Raker — That is half a mile in the direction of Rugby. 

The Chairman — How far is it from Rugby? 

Mr Raker— It must be a mile and a half or two miles from 135 school. 

I want to say just a word in regard to our new school system or organization, 
the so-called duplicate plan or Gary system as it affected P. S. 156. 

I know it is a system about which there is a great deal of opposition, as well as 

i at deal of commendation, which was developed of that system, and I wish to 
speak about it as it affects my own particular problem. 

P. S. 156 has the unenviable distinction of having more part terms than any other 
school in Xew York City according to the figures in the Board of Education. We 



133 

have got a register of 4461 pupils on 2970 seats. We now have 2324 on part time, 
70 classes. If we were to accommodate those 33 excess classes it would require, of 
cour.se, a new building involving an expenditure of some Two Hundred or Three 
Hundred Thousand Dollars at least. The Board of Education have made certain 
alterations and purchased a site for a playground. The total cost has been, I under- 
stand, $42,610. 

We planned to organize a new system almost immediately, in about two weeks 
at least. We will have the entire school of 103 classes placed on full time. Most of 
the school with the exception of the first year in the kindergarten, will have 6 hours 
instead of 5 hours, which constitutes the present full day. Under the new system, 
we have the duplicate school, the X school and the Y school, each school having four 
periods in the class room, and four periods in special activities for study and audi- 
torium. 

The argument has sometimes been advanced that under the new system we are 
not to give as much time for academic subjects. The fact remains, however, accord- 
ing to figures which I have here, that under the present system in full time, an average 
of 176 minutes per day is given to so-called academic subjects, arithmetic, English, 
geography and history. Under the new system we give 200 minutes a day to these 
subjects and the other subjects, such as science, drawing, music, shop work, millinery, 
dressmaking, library work, printing and so on, are taken in our school special activi- 
ties during the time when the children now are on the street. 

The new plan, to my mind, gives the following very decided advantages to my 
school. 

The Chairman — What is the average attendance there? 

Mr. Baker — Our average attendance is 4250. I looked that up to-day. That is 
the average attendance for last month. 

I believe that we will have more effective teaching, as we are able under the new 
system to give the teachers the subject which they are best fitted to teach. It makes 
it possible to give the music teacher opportunity to give her entire time to music, the 
science teacher her entire time to science, the sewing teacher the entire time to that 
subject. 

I would say in this connection that there has not been a syllable of objection on 
the part of any teacher in the school to the adoption of this new system or new plant. 

I feel from the problem of truanc\' — I must say the problem is not a very serious 
one in this district, for the children are very anxious and eager to attend, and par- 
ticularly in the part time system where we have a truant officer to keep our pupils in 
the school, to keep them off the street — under this system we will have control of 
the children all the time. When they are not in the class rooms they are under the 
control of the teachers in the playgrounds or auditorium or other parts of the building. 

I believe under this new system the child through all these activities will get richer 
education, coming in contact with much wider and richer and better environment 
through the opportunities which it is given to handle and use a gieat many different 
things 

In this connection however, I want to point out to your Honorable Board the fact 
that we are filled now to the limit. We have two classes for every room. Under the 
present system it has been possible for us to expand indefinitely. As the pupils came 
in, as new buildings were built the population increased we continued to put them on 
part time, and so can accommodate all that applied. 103 classes there are all that this 
school can accommodate. We are full. We have a great deal of unoccupied land in 
the neighborhood which is rapidly developing and a new elementary school in the 
neighborhood of P. S. 156 is getting to be absolutely necessary in the near future. 
It should be provided for immediately. The new rapid transit system is coming out 
very near the school and building is going on very rapidly. The problem is to get our 



134 

next building to accommodate new pupils as 156 cannot have any increased accom- 
modation. 

Thank you (Applause). 

The Chairman — The Reverend Dr. Meyer. 

Reverend Dr. Meyer — Gentlemen, it gives me great pleasure to appear at this time 
before somebody who would listen to grievances. I have listened to grievances these 
last 8 years that I am at Canarsie, in my work, in my profession, and I represent 
to-night the Chairman of the School Board of the Board of Trade of Canarsie, that 
element of people who are very much dissatisfied with the school building P. S. 115, 
which, as you have smiled, not only smiled, but smiled loudly, as you saw the pictures. 

The Chairman — That is the Canarsie buildings? 

Rev. Dr. Meyer — This is that same aggregation of, not buildings — I do not know 
what to call it. I had a friend of mine to visit me and we took a walk down to the 
shore, and this friend said to me. why, you never even mentioned, as we came near 
the buildings, that you had so many pest houses here. I could not contradict it, 
because I had to leave him under that impression, because if I would have taken him 
into the place he would have been convinced. And therefore, with the conditions as 
they prevail, the children coming in all weathers, especially in the Winter, sitting 
there with cold feet walking the distance of a mile from Sand Bay, we protest. 

I have here complaints and grievances of the Sand Bay Improvement Association, 
as well as of the Canarsie Board of Trade, and I have others at home in my desk of 
the Business Mens League. 

The Chairman — Will you file that with the stenographer, please. 

Rev. Dr. Meyer — And therefore with these conditions prevailing and these many 
years, a beautiful sight, that not even the scholars can emphasize their patriotism, 
why that public school is not even big enough for a patriotic spirit to live in in that 
community and to prove my statement I have here a piece of the Brooklyn Eagle of 
March 27th. 1917. showing the picture of the children as they show their patriotism 
out in the lot ; that is the only place where they can salute the flag, go out in the lot 
to do it properly. They cannot raise their hands to salute in the building. And 
right at the head, we find " beware pacifists, do not venture near the Canarsie school." 

I do not mean to say that this only pertains to the patriotism of our community, 
I nit it also pertains to the treatment which we have received from our school boards, 
whoever they might have been, in not having proper healthful and American condi- 
tions prevailing in a community who have sent more veterans to the Civil War than 
any community of its size and who have done so much in all patriotic causes that they 
arc not only aggrieved of the conditions as they prevail in Canarsie in School 115, 
but "do not venture near that school" because not only of the aggravation of the 
community, if you come in any official capacity, but even from a standpoint of health. 
As you see in those pictures, the windows of the school are within a short distance of 
a number of feet from the open toilets. Conditions are awful. There is the Teachers 
resting room (indicating). 

The first time I went to that school on the invitation of the principal, when I 
got in the office she said "be careful. Don't walk so heavy" (laughter). I have never 
gone into that school since. 

I had an insurance agent come up the other day to insure me for accident. I 
said to him. I think I will, because I intend to go down to Public School No. 115. 

We have paid taxes, and mind you in the last few years our taxes have raised 400 
per cent in some instances and our benefits have deteriorated and in fact the school is 
not as good as it was formerly. 

The trouble is we are too patriotic in Canarsie and the people have not heard 
enough of us. We have the same thing with our police station. They took away the 
police from us because we are pacifists and send them up to Brownsville. 



135 

Those conditions prevail because we have been patriotic and stood by those that 
have jurisdiction over us, but the time is come when other communities stride ahead 
of us in making their demands, that we realize that we must make our demands and 
therefore would I ask for this committee to investigate and give us a square deal in 
getting rid of our pest house. 

The Chairman— Dr. H. O. Rockefeller. 

Dr. H. O. Rockefeller — I am speaking on behalf of the boys in the high schools 
in the Borough of Brooklyn and in Richmond Hill. 

These figures are about right and were taken at about the present time. In the 
girls high school the enrollment of the pupils in the main building is 2616, in the annex 
954. The seating capacity is 1916 in the main building and 604 in the annex, making 
the excess of enrollment of pupils over the seating capacity 700 in the main building 
and 350 in the annex. 

The average capacity of the class rooms is 33. The largest number in any class 
room is 45, and the percentage of pupils who drop out at the end of the first year is 40 
per cent, and the three principal reasons of these pupils dropping out during the first 
year are, mental incapacity of continuing in the classes or keeping up the standard ; 
another reason for that, they attain the age of 16 and go to work, as the law requires 
that they shall go to school until they are 16, and another reason is on account of 
sickness or ill health. 

The arrangement for the number of pupils in excess of the seating capacity is by 
double sessions. The extra teachers on account of the enrollment being in excess 
of the seating capacity requires 30 or more. 

In the boys high school the enrollment is 3525. The seating capacity is 2700. The 
excess of enrollment of pupils over seats is 825. The average sitting room in a class 
room is 35 and the largest number of pupils in any class room is 38, and the percentage 
of pupils who drop out at the end of the first year is 37. 

The arrangement for the number of pupils in excess of seating capacity is this : 
2062 attend from 8 :20 in the morning until 1 :30 P. M. ; 1463 from 1 :30 to 5 :30 P. M. 

You will notice that they only get four hours of recitation. I do not know, but 
taking the whole year, it seems to me that the pupil is losing considerable time of 
instruction. 

The teachers on account of the enrollment beina in excess of the seating capacity, 
that is, the extra number of teachers is 35 or more. 

In Bushwick High School, taking the main building, and two annexes, the enrollment 
is 3,353. The seating capacity is 3,824. The excess of pupils over seats is 519. The 
average capacity of a class room is 34, and the largest number in any class room is 52. 

The Chairman — Will you file that, so that we can have it among the records? 

Mr. Rockefeller — Yes. 

The Chairman — The steonographer will copy it completely. 

Dr. Rockefeller — I will end then by just giving the total. 

The total excess of enrollment over seating capacity in all these schools, including 
Richmond Hill, is 2,979. The seating capacity of the annexes is 2,620, making a 
total over the capacity of the main building of 5,599, enough to fill three high school 
buildings like girls high school. 

The annexes^ in excess of enrollment necessitates about 183 extra teachers, so you 
see the school department is already furnishing enough teachers to furnish enough 
for this extra number of seating capacity in any case. 

The Chairman — , teacher of Graves School, wishes to speak on 

speech improvement. 

I am a teacher of 4-A grade in Public School 144, and I would like to ask that 
your Committee recommend that speech improvement teachers be appointed for the 
Borough of Brooklyn. There have been teachers or supervisors of speech improvement 
appointed by the Borough of Manhattan and Brooklyn, with a school population almost 



136 

as large as that of Manhattan, and increasing at a greater rate, is as much in need 
of speech improvement teachers as Manhattan is. If we had more speech improvement 
teachers in the elementary schools, the trouble that Mr. Miller was speaking of to-night 
about the girls in training schools being excluded because of foreign accents, or 
because they are not fitted for that, that trouble would not exist, because the work 
of ibe speech improvement teacher is correcting lisping, foreign accent and many 
other things and to hold conferences with and instruct the teachers so that the 
normal child may also have its speech improved. 

What does it avail a child if they learn all the grammar there is and then cannot 
speak in such a way that they can be understood ? And the work of the speech 
teacher tends to improve also the articulation and enunciation of the normal child. 
Therefore I would like to make a plea that Brooklyn also have some supervisor 
of speech improvement appointed, as well as Manhattan (applause). 

The Chairman — Miss May Secor, also on speech improvement. 

Miss May Secor — I did not know that one of my colleagues was going to speak 
now. 

The Chairman — 1 cannot hear you. 

Miss Secor — I am very sorry that I have a cold. I will do the best T can. 

T will not burden you unnecessarily, but T did not know my colleague was going 
to speak, so T will just add a few items which she has not mentioned. 

\~ the department of speech improvement is the latest established department in 
our city schools 

I i ■ Chairman — Are you connected with that department? 

Miss Secor — T am the Chairman; our director was appointed last May, a 
director of the entire city. As the previous speaker has said, there are now but six 

II rs doing this work in the greater city, none of these teachers being in Brooklyn. 
The total of ill" payroll for teachers of the speech improvement department at present 

I.064, which is l/138th of the total payroll of the teachers This does not include 
principals or other officials. 

I he total of the teachers payroll for 1917 is $1,253,725.58. 

I would like to call your attention, gentlemen, to the fact that while our depart- 
ment, while the payroll of our department totals $9,064, the payroll of the mentally 
tive children totals $245,611; the shopwork payroll totals $215,843; the cooking 
i on. 
The Chairman— You are giving those figures, facts and statistics for the purpose 
of presenting to this Committee the necessity of having additional teachers in your 

niellt ? 

Miss Seer— I am, and to show you that while these departments, which possibly 
■ it do nol cure, such as the mentally defective, while these departments are 

iving all this attention, the speech improvement department, which represents 
cures which can be I ffe ted and are being effected, is not receiving the proper atten- 
tion with them (appl.n 

The Chairman— That statement will he filed. 

( Statement filed I 

The Chairman- Mr. William T. Morrey. for Bushwick High School. 

Mr. William T. Morrey— 1 wish ti> make a correction of the number of pupils 
from this district in the high schools. 

About the first of March the Vcting Associate Superintendent in charge of high 

scl Is sent a circular to all the high schools in the Borough of Brooklyn and in 

the neighborhood, asking how many pupils they had who lived east of Utica Avenue 
and south of Fulton Street and Jamaica Avenue. Those statistics were turned in. 
They were tabulated. A letter was prepared by gentlemen in the office, and I think- 
over the signature of the Superintendent. Gilsley, and the matter was transmitted to 
Mrs. Ford. 



137 

I shall not go into all the details, but I wish that this Committee would obtain 
from the proper authorities a copy of this letter, and make it a part of your record. 
It is a matter of public business, and, of course, there is a right to it. 

The Chairman — Who has the letter, you say? 

Mr. Morrey— I think it was addressed to Mrs. Ford by Dr. Gilsley. I simply 
summarized the letter for your benefit. 

The Chairman — Probably we can get a copy of that letter. Have you a copy of 
that letter? 

Mr. Morrey — I presume there is no objection to take a copy of your own. It is 
?. matter of public business. 

The Chairman — Have you a copy, Mrs. Ford? 

Mrs. Ford — I would like to identify the letter. 

Mr. Morrey — I will make this point, if I had known Mrs. Ford was here, I would 
not have made the report for her. 

I have here, of course, the number of boys and girls and the totals. 

There were in the schools mentioned 5,076 pupils from the district I mentioned. 
Of these 4,779 paid 10 cents a day in carfare. 74 paid 20 cents, $14.80, a total of 
$492.70 a day. 

There is another figure here, too, that I have calculated, 297. 297 out of 5,076 is 
1 in 17; 16 out of every 17 paid carfare, either 10 cents a day or 20; 15 out of 17 
pay, and out of 17 one does not pay. This figures $492.70 per day for 200 school 
days, and would amount to nearly $100,000 a year. 

This amount in 10 years would build a school house worth about one million 
dollars. As it is this money is coming out of the pockets of the persons who can 
least afford to pay this money. 

I will emphasize those facts. 

The Chairman — Mr. Abraham Vogel, President of the Parents' Association of 
P. S. No. 84 (applause).. 

Mr. Vogel — Mr. Chairman, and Honorable Members of the Committe, as the 
Chairman of the Parents' Association of this school I would regard it as a grave 
omission if the Parents' Association did not say a few words regarding the prob- 
lems which we have been struggling to solve for the past few years. The main 
trouble that we have to combat and struggle for has been to obtain high school 
facilities for the large number of children who leave the various elementary schools 
here and are compelled to travel through the greater city and expend, as Judge 
Richards has stated, large sums of money for carfare and for lunches, but recently 
the Board of Education has destroyed our every hope of obtaining the high school 
facilities for the next few years, and I have taken the trouble of investigating the 
reason for it, and 1 believe I have found a solution of the problem' which may be 
satisfactory to our Association and to the residents in this section. 

We have here about 14 or 15 public schools scattered over a territory from 
Utica avenue, we will say, to the City Line, which has a population of about 350,000 
people. The original proposition when the high school site was purchased on Penn- 
sylvania avenue was to erect a high school at Pennsylvania and Dumont and let 
that high school satisfy the requirements of all the children east of Utica and extending 
clear over to the City Line for a distance of about two and a half to three miles. 

The objection that children have to travel on trolley cars and take their lunches 
aio/ig to the school house would still be a great objection for those who resided 
either near the City Line or those who resided nearer the city, for still some of 
those who go to high school would be required to pay more than 20 cents a day, 
and if we d d have a high school in the location at Pennsylvania and Dumont avenue, 
we would still have those children from Utica avenue and the City Line being com- 
pelled to travel on trolley cars, especially in winter and during inclement weather, 
and particularly those who had to travel more than 20 to 25 blocks. 



138 

The problem which strikes me as being one which will solve it and which meets 
with the approval of members of the Board is this: To introduce the ninth and tenth 
years in the public schools as they are now constituted, and that is the problem I 
want to submit to the Committee and which was not permitted by Judge Richards, 
Chairman of the Committee of 100, and all the other speakers who spoke of lack of 
high schools. 

We have room here for a ninth year, and I think if properly organized, for the 
tenth year, so that they would continue in high school work for the ninth and tenth 
years, and we have children from 109, 150 and 125 within five or six blocks of this 
school, and all of those buildings, if properly converted at very little expenses could 
bi converted into schools giving the ninth and tenth year of education to the boys 
and girls of the district and save us the expense of sending them to the different 
parts of the city and giving them difficulties in the way of high school education. 

There are 5,500 to '6,000 who leave this town every day and travel away from 
it, and the objection to the expense of that is this: That when a boy or girl finishes 
school in the building, if they have to go to another section they drop out and don't 
continue their study in the other hi«h school, and furthermore it has been shown 
that most of the girls and boys, probably only 50 per cent, take the second year in 
high school, and if we can succeed in keeping them in the neighborhood, keeping them 
in the district, so they will have the ninth and also the tenth year in some of the 
buildings, as I understand the plan now is proposed, we will be enabled to give the 
children who stay here during the first year the ninth year, and the second year the 
tenth year, an academic or school training and those who wish to continue further will 
be accommodated in the building which is proposed to be erected on the site of 
Pennsylvania avenue and Dumont avenue, which will lie a building with 72 classes, 
that is with about 58 of them for elementary classes and about 14 of them for high' 
school work exclusively, so that 5,500 children who now travel to different parts of 
the city can lie accommodated at the public schools right here in the neighborhood, 
saving them carfare, saving them to the school, saving them getting lunches outside 
tin home and reducing t lie cost to the city, which is a great burden on the parents, 
ii must understand this is one of the poorest sections in Greater New York. 

The Chairman — Mrs. Sakvaes, President of the Parents' Association of P. S. 109. 

Mrs. Sakvaes — 1 wont keep you' long. You have all heard the former speakers, 
but I do not think you have beard one of the mothers of the neighborhood, one who 
has went through the mill, who has paid her dimes and nickels to the car company. 

I'.. ing in iln- section for the past 20 years I know under what conditions our poor 
bo) and girls go I" high school. I myself already have two graduates of high 
school Mi'l two in 'be high school now. At one time I had to pay out for three 
\sliu were going t" high school at the same time, and to give carfare in the morning 
to three was not very pleasant. I U rourse we all try to do our best. 

The children of this district go to high school under most difficult conditions. 
Many a mother who would spend their dimes for bread for the other children have 
to give ii i" the car company, because the car company when you enter the car is: 
"mi tickee no shirtee" — you have no nickel you "no ride." The poor boy must have 
a nickel whether the mother can afford it or not. 

Some of tin boys of this district walk to high school in the coldest days.- In the 
■ Mist mornings 1 will see girls and boys of this district travelling to this high 
school, the Eastern District, and the others, Erasmus High School and they get there 
some how or other. 

you sax that we need a high school. There is a case now where a boy that 
goes to high school that cannot afford his carfare, he comes in my house and does 
his home work with the boy. 

( )ne day the children told me he has no carfare. They told me the condition 
of the house. I said, "You boys, why don't you see his carfare is paid?" "Why, 



139 

he is so proud he won't take a nickel." So I suggested to the boys, this boy is very 
proud, and he knows he is smart. I said you put a proposition to him and ask him 
to come here and help to do your homework and thereby earn his carfare. There 
were five boys. Each one brings me a dime every Sunday morning and Monday the 
boy has his carfare. Still the boy goes to school. (Applause.) 

I want to prove to you when the boy goes away to school he cannot go away 
with a dime. He must have an extra nickel. Suppose he has a hole in his pocket and 
loses a nickel, he has to walk home from school. The mother must give him an 
extra nickel whether she can afford it or not. Then on a cold day a boy cannot have 
a dry lunch. He must have a cup of coffee when it is very cold ; and the nickel 
that pays in the high school for a very small cup of coffee the mother could supply 
all her children in the house with coffee. 

Then there is another thing, when the boy takes his lunch, the mother has to 
prepare a separate luncheon, or if there is two or three children going to high 
school at the same time this is a separate expense, while when the children are at 
home, where there are five or six, the others can eat at the same time, and it is not 
an extra expense. 

So you see really we must have a high school here. I know two of my children 
will not have the benefit of the high school here any more, but I hope the others 
will. But if you came to the poor parents who spend 10 cents for carfare to the car 
company and ask them, to give you the 10 cents every day for building the high 
school, we would gladly and willingly give it. 

The Chairman — Mr. Simon. 

Mr. Simon — I visited the Gary School this morning and I was one of those 
who was opposed to the Gary system because of the fact I was informed by those who 
pretended to know that it probably lead to religion or other insidious or worse things 
in the school. I thing the way to solve the problem we have in this district here is 
to give a Gary system. 

I do not think the City of New York can go on spending yearly the tremendous 
amount that it was spending on new school buildings and be always short and have 
inadequate facilities. 

You have in this school over 1,200 children who have no sitting room. My little 
girl, a child of seven, is compelled to go to school at 8 in the morning and she is in 
school until 12 and then cannot go to school at all. In other words, she is only half 
served. 

I went to that school and saw children playing around at carpenter work, electric 
work, mechanical work, and they were all keeping busy and I saw the esprit of those 
children and I was surprised, and they are really gaining more than they were, and so I 
have come to the conclusion if you gentlemen are really open minded and really wish 
the benefit of our children, who. ought to be dearer to us than anything under the 
sun, if your investigation means a serious and earnest investigation, if you want to 
do> the right thing, you will study this Gary system, and see to it that it comes 
into the public school, and it will give every child a seat and you won't have to spend 
as much money for our school system. 

Another thing, we have in this town a larger population than we have school 
facilities and ouf population is growing every year because of the politic population. 
Our people believe in large families and the growth is continung here. You cannot 
keep pace with the growth of this town. I do not care how many school buildings you 
give us, and unless you get down to a scientific basis, to give every school child a 
seat and give them variety enough to take up their time, you can't do it. 

So I urge upon you gentlemen if you come here seriously, open minded, with a 
view to doing your duty and with a serious view of doing this work rather than 
injuring it, to give this Gary system real consideration and introduce it right here 
in Brownsville in every school. 



1-10 

Alderman McManus — Do you think if this school was under the Gary system 
you could seat 1,200? 

Mr. Simon — Yes, we could seat more. 

Alderman McManus — 1,200 more? 

Mr. Simon — We could seat just as many as we have now. 

The Chairman — What is the seating capacity? 

Mr. Simon — This school has 5,500 children. 

Alderman McManus — How many children are without seats? 

Mr. Simon — We have 3600 and we 5500 children. 

Ahhrman McManus — There are 1200 without seats? Are you familiar with 
the Gary system? 

Mr. Simon — This is practical operation, which is the real test. 
\ldcrman McManus — Whom do you represent? 

Mr. Simon — I represent the Parents Association of P. S. 84. I saw, when I 
came into this building, P. S. 45 of the Bronx, I found about five or six hundred 
children in the auditorium and they had a moving picture exhibition and a very 
instructive one. I saw the children smiling and happy in the playground, nice and 
orderly with a teacher to take care of them and they were enjoying themselves 
and enjoying the moving picture exhibition, and I went down into the auditorium 
and into the other rooms and they were occupied, every room, with various classes, 
some electric, some mechanical, some pottery and glass work, every one of those 
classes was filled, and we had a thousand children occupied in the auditorium and 
when the shops were finished they went into the play ground and then into the 
auditorium and the system was harmonious, with absolutely perfect order and every 
child had 295 minutes of school every day. 

In other words, 1 could see it clearly working there and I cannot see why we 
cannot work it in here very well. 

Mr. Patrie who runs this is a man of absolute executive ability, but I claim 
anv school teacher who is in spirit and sympathy with the work can do what Mr. 
Patrie is doing. We have one school in Brooklyn, and I understand that is work- 
up 1 1 rj well. ( Applause). 

Alderman Drescher — Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Welfare Committee 
of the Board of Alderman : 

First, at this late hour I want to extend to you a cordial and sincere greeting 
as one of vour colleagues and as a representative of this district. You are now 
in the midst of the greatest Aldermanic district in New York City. The district 
lias the smallest school house as was portrayed on that photograph, along the old 
Kings Highway, with I believe, two or three students in it. It still remains there 
as ,ni evidence hovt this district has grown, and we also have the largest school 
house, here, in the City, 

Your visit her< no doubt has resulted in a great deal ot good, because you had 
a chance, especially you gentlemen from the Bronx, to learn the element that I 
represent. You have heard from the sun kissed shores of Canarsie and the green 
fields of Rugby. You have heard from Ocean hill and you have also heard from 
far distant Bushwick Here is the place where people have grievances and they 
come for consolation and when anybody wants to do any knocking this is the place 
where they select to do it. Have no doubt about it. Gentlemen of the Board of 
Aldermen, as an illustration and as an example they have an idea, if we want 
bathing facilities it is because of lack of baths. Just on the contrary. Many people 
of this community take a bath not because they need it but because their religion 
compels them to take it. 

\\ hen 1 first came to this district, some 16 years ago, this historic school house 
had been remodelled about half a dozen time. You have heard of the little school 
house down at Rugby that was stored in this school house here. We have the 



141 

honor of having Mr. Wilson's representative graduate from this school district. I 
have reference to United States Marshall, Mr. Power, here. He attended this school. 
He is the calibre of man we have. 

Talking about the needs of this locality, there is only one thing that we require, 
aud that is a high school. I think the other propositions are coming. 1 know that 
the City has been generous to us. During my career as Alderman in 1910 and 1911, 
Mrs. Ford will bear me out, of five allotted to Brooklyn, we got three. Of course 
it is true we camped on the doorstep. I want to advise the Committee if you want 
money for your districts, just get acquainted with Mrs. Ford and know her well. 

It is true we are growing very rapidly. Even though Mrs. Sanger makes her 
rpudesvous here, that makes no difference whatsoever. She has been wasting her 
time. 

We have all kinds and descriptions in this district, Mr. Chairman, and we sin- 
cerely hope when your labors are completed and you go into executive session you 
will understand that right here we have very few knockers and very few kickers, 
but we have people who are patriotic, they are loyal, they are devoteid Amerieains 
every one of them, every man woman and child in our town, and I ask you when 
you go back, when you make your recommendation that you won't forget Canarsie, 
hecause I owe a great deal to Canarsie, I owe my political existence to it. Don't 
forget Rugby. As for Brownsville, we always take care of ourselves. This is 
my home town. Let me say in conclusion, with respect to the high school, the 
Board of Aldermen unanimously adopted a resolution, if you may remember, in 
which you voted, and that resolution was sent to the Board of Estimate, urging 
upon them the necessity of immediately appropriating funds for the erection of a 
high school on the site that is now alrady owned by the City; and I have it, and 
T will let you in on a secret. I have it confidently from Mrs. Ford that they are 
not going to erect a duplicate school on that site as intended, but they are going to 
leave it as it is, and are going to erect a school to relieve the congested conditions, 
and I know the best man in the City government and — and if she keeps her word 
the Board of Estimate will follow and a high school will be erected in your midst 
if you keep on boosting and not knocking. 

I thank you gentlemen, men of the Committee and I hope you will carry sweet 
memories of your visit to Brownsville and the surrounding country. 

Mrs. Benecki — I am Vice President of Parents Association of P. S. 84, and 
also representative of the Jewish Aid Society. I wish to speak in behalf of the 
poorest families, because I come in contact with the poorest families of Browns- 
ville, and those are the parents that are not so poor but that they can send their 
children to hight school even if they have to pay carfare, but it is those families 
that apply to charity who yet wish to give their children a high scool education. 

As you know, men and women are not able to go to work unless they have an 
elementary education and the public school alone is not sufficient. A couple of 
years of high school will help them a great deal, and if it is in your power to help 
to establish a high school here, we as the Parents Association and the Charity As- 
sociation will be very thankful to you. 

The Chairman — Does anyone else want to say a word before the Committee 
concludes? 

— I wish to speak a few words on the ninth year in the grammar 
school. In my visits to the principals of the high schools I mentioned that subject 
and they said they hoped they didn't send those scholars to that school. More than 
that, they thought they would not be up to the high school class mark. Therefore 
we ought to have a high school here and not have that substitute. 

I think for those who are just going for one year to finish out their age, or 
before they are mentally defective, say they cannot get any further or because they 
are sickly and want to give up school, they can go that ninth year to grammar, but 



142 

those going to high school had better go to high school in the first place and keep 
under the supervision of the school. 

With regard to the Gary system. I think the Gary system is good. I have only 
one criticism — for those who don't take the vocational department they lose half an 
hour of recitation every day. I got that from Mr. Kirk in his talk of high schools. 
I asked the question, does not the scholar who attends the school and does not take 
the vocational course lose half an hour? He stated that is a fact. I do not know 
whether the benefits that scholar loses in half an hour every day. but figuring up 
every year it amounts to quite a lot. Figure up the whole course for the grammar 
school, you have got quite a loss. 

There is one thing that I think ought to be remedied. I have some idea in visiting 
these principals of these schools that our Board of Education ought to be composed 
of half of the members of the high schools who have retired, who shall have charge 
of the manner of conducting the education through the whole City of Greater New 
York. I don't believe it ought to be in the hands of financiers of our government. 
It ought to be in the hands of those who know how to meet the scholars, those who 
have had the experience of the children and know how to handle them. 

It should be in the hands of those that can give the best requirements of the 
different schools in the boroughs, how the scholars ought to be handled as to their 
vocational advantage, and I think it is wrong to put it in the hands of the financial 
department. 

Mr. Campbell — May I say a word? 

The Chairman — You have had your full time. 

Mr. Campbell — I haven't had any time. It all went in questions. 

The Chairman — You were allotted 10 minutes and you had that time. 

Mr. Campbell—l just want to clear up a little misapprehension that has been given 
lure about the new site on East 33d Street, near Snyder Avenue, that that is relieving 
the situation in P. S. 135. 

The Chairman — Be brief. 

Mr. Campbell — I will be very brief. 

You have to take into consideration that the completion of the Nostrand Avenue 
subway and the Utica Avenue subway for this section here will very rapidly develop, 
and (Hi top of that there is already what is known as the Becker Commercial Com- 
pany. 1 understand that that has almost completed a twenty-million corporation, 
and when completed it is expected that they will engage at least 2,500 men, and it is 
right near this location and the site at Kast 33d Street and Snyder Avenue, while 
necessary at that point, still it will not relieve Public School No. 135. 

I he neu site is in District No. 38, and I understand that the chairman of the 
Local School Board of District 38 holds a similar view to that of our Local School 
Board. 

The Chairman — What is his name? 

Mr. Campbell — I think it is Mr. Snyder. I am so informed. At this particular 
point they must supply school facilities. 

1 can appreciate Mrs. Schulken's position, sitting here and listening to others 
talking of vocational advantages in public schools and here in Rugby they have 460 
children with 223 on part time, and as pointed out to you, with a playground of 10 by 
15 feet in back of it, and 1 do hope in your report that you will include some relief 
for Rugby in the way of supplying the very much needed new school building. 
" Mr. Nicholson, District Superintendent of the schools in this section. 

Mr. Nicholson — The statements that have been presented to you of this matter of 
accent in training schools, I may tell you, is under consideration by the members of 
the training schools. They have it in hand, and I have received information that it 
has received professional mention. 



143 

In regard to the duplicate schools I need not say anything. That has been pre- 
sented by my two associates who have spoken for it. 

With regard to the point raised by one speaker, this building being on the dupli- 
cate plan, as to capacity, it will run over 6,000 without reference to the auditorium 
in which we sit, when duplication is effected. 

With regard to this matter of speech improvement, the Board of Education 
recently appointed a professional gentlemen in charge of that, department and reports 
have been sent to him from all the districts, and my own report from this district 
shows the need for work in that particular district and nearby schools. He must take 
the initiative for that and the budget for near year now in process and we are sending 
these reports to him. 

With regard to the ninth year and the tenth year, we have that under advisement 
and we are considering it. 

It may be pertinent to the questions Dr. Rockefeller mentioned and my colleague 
from 58 to say that last June, when we tried to put in that section ninth-year work 
in P. S. 115, and when my opinion was asked as to the possibilities, the net result of 
a canvass that went all through that district was that there were too small classes for 
ninth-year work. 

My friend Mr. Kirk can hardly be advanced as an exponent of the duplicate 
school system. He is operating the Ettinger system. There is nothing in it which 
causes any child to lose a half hour. On the other hand every teacher of the service 
tends to time and energy. 

With regard to the little lady the mother of P. S. 109, I appreciate her greatly 
as a type of the citizen of this district who does show us an example of her resource- 
fulness. My home, like your own home, is far from here, but my heart is here, and 
I am very much at home with these children and the voice of a woman like that 
woman who has distributed through this winter coal and food and the resourceful- 
ness she shows, is a voice we must listen to, and I assure you all that the school prin- 
cipals, two of whom you have seen here to-night, all of these teachers and myself 
are in cordial accord, that these people should receive the best attention we can give 
them, and as far as possible I always myself listen to their suggestions and, if I can, 
adopt them. 

One word finally. Something has been said about the best man in official life in 
New York. I have the honor of the acquaintance of that good woman. There is a 
matter that we understand in schools that is incontrovertible and that is what is called 
the order of necessity — in Mrs. Ford's departments, the order of necessity, the order 
of urgency — and that thing is calculated mathematically. It is not a subject of dis- 
cussion of debate or influence or pull. They go at it scientifically, and sites and 
buildings are determined under a basis that recognizes that order of necessity, and 
that being the case, we cannot evade that issue and I think in fairness we ought to 
take that into account. 

May I say, as one who lives in Washington Heights, and whose duty brings him 
very pleasantly here every day, I am as proud of the parents as of the children I 
help to teach, because of the dignity, decorum and propriety that has characterized 
to-night's meeting. 

The Chairman — The next hearing of this Committee will be held on Thursday, 
May 3, 1917, at 8 p. m„ in P. S. 39, State and Rockaway Avenues, Far Rockaway. 
Queens. 

We will now adjourn. 

Meeting adjourned to May 3, 1917, at 8 p. m. 



144 

MINUTES OF HEARING BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON GENERAL WEL- 
FARE OF THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN ON THE FOLLOWING MATTER: 

"No. 1242— Request of the conference of organized labor to the Board to hold 
hearings and to invite the Board of Education and city officials to answer why 
the demands for better educational facilities have not been requested." 

Public School No. 39, State and Rockaway Avenues, Far Rockaway, Queens, May 
3rd. 1917, at 8:00 P. M. 

Present — Aldermen Robitzek, Chairman; Collins, Quinn, Ferguson, Haubert, Egan, 
Friedlander. 

The Chairman — Pursuant to public notice this hearing is called by the Committee 
cm General Welfare of the Board of Aldermen to consider generally the educational 
facilities of the City of New York. 

This is a continuation of public hearings that have been held in all of the Bor- 
oughs, in all parts of the City. We are not considering individual complaints against 
teachers or principals. We are simply considering the general educational facilities 
of the City of New York. 

lias anyone here arranged a list of those that desire to speak? If so, I would 
be pleased to have their names and hear them right away. 

In the meanwhile I will present to the stenographer for filing with the clerk and 
introducing in the record a communication from Miss Levenson, Chairman of the 
Committee on Truancy, together with a brief on the desirability of the establishment 
of a country school for girls. 

I also have a communication from the principal of Public School No. 58, Wood- 
haven, and the clerk will kindly read the foregoing: 

" April 30th, 1917. 
" I b.ii Harrj Robitzek, No. 2808 Third Avenue, Manhattan. 

" My Dear Alderman — Herewith I beg to send you a copy of the brief to which I 
referred at tin- hearing in Public School No. 93 on Thursday Evening, April 19th, 
1917. 

'"] In 'Hi. I was submitted by the Children's Welfare Committee of the Associa- 
tion of Women Principals, and endorsed by tin Central Committee of the Local School 
Board. Yours very truly, 

"SARA LEY1NSON, Chairman, Committee on Truancy." 

(The brief referred to will be found at the close of the testimony.) 

"Department of Education, Office of the Principal of Public School No. 58, 

W lhaven, Borough of Queens. May 3rd, 1917. 

"To thi Secri <i the Welfare Committee of the Board of Aldermen, City of 

New York, in session at I'. S. 3'', Far Rockaway. 

"Dear Sir I enclose a statement relative to speech improvement of Stammering, 
lisping anil stuttering children in the Borough of Queens. Alderman Goetz asked me 
to use his name in requesting that this statement be read and that it receive the atten- 
tion ii- importance merits. Will you please read my letter and the documents relative 
to these unfortunate children to your worthy Committee? Yours very truly, 

•■ VGNES E. SMITH. Prncipal P. S. 58. Woodhaven, New York." 

The Chairman — 1 think it will be advisable for the Secretary of the petitioner to 
present, just in a brief manner, an outline of just what these proceedings are con- 
templating and what this petition contemplated. Mr. Brady, just briefly, however. 

Mr. Peter \. Brady Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen. As you know the 
reasons win- organized labor in Greater New York, through its conference on educa- 
tion have asked the Board of Aldermen to conduct an investigation into Public 
Schools was that we were of the opinion that the facilities in our public schools 
were not sufficient for the proper educational development of all the public school chil- 



145 

dren. We felt there was not sufficient and proper provision being made for these chil- 
dren attending our schools. All of the facilities that they are entitled to under the taxes 
which they pay, either directly or indirectly. 

We also have an issue with the Board of Education itself, an issue as to the 
methods of industrial vocation in these schools. We are very much worried as to the 
industrial education being given to the children throughout the public schools at 
the present time, whether it will be of real value to them when they leave the schools 
to go out to industrial and commercial life. 

We know positively that some of the time of the children being taken up by train- 
ing in vocational industrial subjects is absolutely wasted and is through our desire 
to have that waste turned into something profitable that we first approached the 
members of the Board of Education itself and the members of the Board of Esti- 
mate and Apportionment, to have the necessary reforms made, so that industrial edu- 
cation would be more closely identified with the working people in industry and 
also with the employers in industry. 

Not receiving any great consideration from the Board of Education and very 
little at all from the Board of Estimate and Apportionment, we had no other 
course to adopt than to appeal to the Board of Aldermen itself. 

Our petition was filed with the Board of Aldermen in February of this year and 
has- been referred to your Committee and at our request your Committee have been 
holding hearings in various parts of the City and getting in direct contact with the 
people themselves, with the people who are sending the children to school, with the 
people who are directly affected by the education ; and I think a great deal of the 
trouble and the misunderstanding of vocational education in the City is because 
the Board of Education has been holding itself aloof from the people who send their 
children to the schools. 

I think your investigation so far has demonstrated that and I feel the further 
hearings you will hold will emphasize that more clearly as you go along. After you 
have sufficient evidence before your Committee from the people directly affected, 
you may call before your Committee as you see fit, the Commissioners of Education, 
to show cause why this complaint of all the people sending children to the schools 
has not been eliminated, and why no procedure is being adopted by either the Board 
of Education or the City authorities to provide for their elimination in the immediate 
future. We have protested against the Gary system of education until such time 
as the Gary system proves it is of greater educational value than the system of 
education that we have in this City. The Gary system has changed its name now to 
the Duplicate School system. Back in 1904, I have found in the last week or ten 
days that they had a system of duplicate schools in this City and the Board of Educa. 
tion will bear that out. They have been having some system of duplicate schools 
since 1914 in some part of the schools in the City at some time, and while we are 
not in a position to pass upon the academic features of education we are certainly, 
from organized labor's point of view, in a very emphatic manner competent to pass 
upon the industrial educational feature, and that is something that we have recom- 
mended to the Board of Education, that we be given an opportunity to pass upon 
the qualifications /of teachers as well as to approve or disapprove of the courses of 
studying matter provided in the industrial or educational subjects. 

Mr. Solinger — I am sorry I was not present when the preceding speaker started 
his remarks, but what I have heard seems to me to be rather contrary to the purpose 
of this meeting. 

I do not think that this meeting was called for any purpose of discussing the Gary 
system or anything of a similar character. As I understand the gentlemen of the 
Welfare Committee of the Board of Aldermen are holding these meetings to give a 
hearing of the citizens throughout the greater City of New York that they may 



146 

demonstrate, if possible, the physical needs of our schools, the structural needs, and 
by that I mean the physical needs. 

I want to say right here that the people or the Committees of the three societies 
who really fostered this meeting and got it together were given to understand that 
no discussion of any kind was to be in order excepting simply to show our Committee 
of the Board of Aldermen what were the physical needs of our schools in Ward 5, 
and for that reason I, as an individual, not representing any body of men at all, 
certainly deprecate any allusion to the Gary system or anything which in any- 
way might accentuate any dissatisfaction with any system that the Board of Education 
is following out now in the curriculum which is adopted and carried out in our 
public schools; and Mr. Chairman, if I am right, I ask you to kindly insist or see that 
those proceedings are held to. 

The Chairman — Mr. Solinger, I may say that it is neither the purpose nor the 
object nor the desire of this Committee to go into the Gary or anti-Gary or pro-Gary 
systems. Incidentally, of course, the Gary system has come into our hearings by the 
presentation of certain facts pro anil con, but that is only an instant. We are endeavor- 
ing, as 1 stated in the opening of this meeting, we are endeavoring to ascertain the 
requirements of the City in regard to educational facilities, and that is the main and 
sole object of this Committee in these hearings. 

Mr. Solinger — Yes, Mr. Chairman, if I may say another word, that I appreciate all 
that you have said, but if you want to discuss the physical needs of the City, you can 
onlj in my judgment discuss them, you know, as they exist to-day without any 
reference to any other change in the system or curriculum. 

Ibe Chairman — Pardon me interrupting you, I do not mean to be rude, but if a 
speaker upon presenting here facts incidentally refers to the Gary system — some speak- 
ers have claimed the Gary system is the solution — we cannot foreclose them from 
speaking on the subject they have uppermost in their minds. I am not speaking on 
behalf of the Committee in favor of or against the Gary ysstem, but they have a right 
when the] have the floor, or are presenting their views to the Committee to present 
their views as they see lit. This is an open discussion and I do not see we can in 
any way prevent them talking on any subject or discussing it within the time limit. 
We have made a maximum limit to every speaker of 10 minutes. That is the rule that 
has been in /ogue at the previous meetings and the speakers will be limited to 10 
minutes. 

Hav< you c bided, Mr. Brady ? 

Mr. Brad] I have concluded my remarks, but I understand Mr. Solinger was 
not in when you opened the meeting, and asked me if I wouldn't state for the peti- 
iii tlii^ bearing what the purpose was that we had in mind when we asked the 
aldermen to make this investigation. 

I might say in answer to Mr. Solinger that the purpose which we had in view 
in petitioning the Board of Aldermen to look into the educational problems, or to 
direct an Vldermanic Committee to investigate the educational problems included 
all in es, including the Gary, and we protest against any extension of that 

system until it proves its educational value in comparison with the system of educa- 
tion we have in this City at the present time. 

That is all 1 ask. 1 ask that on behalf of the people whom I represent, that is 
the trade union movement of the City, because not only the physical needs of which 
you complain of down here are not being atended to, but the physical needs of our 
members' children in every Borough are not being attended to throughout the entire 
We duly complained to the Board of Aldermen asking them to hold this hearing 
so the public could come direct to them and give their views on education regardless 
of what the views might be. It will then be up to the Board of Aldermen to draw 
their conclusions from the evidence presented. 



147 

The Chairman — What the Board of Aldermen want to ascertain to-night is what 
do the people of Far Rockaway and the Rockaways, if anything, require in regard 
to additional school facilities? That is what we are solely interested in having the 
speakers discuss. If a speaker wants to speak on the Gary system we will not prevent 
him if he offers to do so. 

The first speaker will be Mr. Frederick Schwede, who is a member of the Progress 
Society. 

.M'r. Frederick W. Schwede — I wanted to be last. Do you mind calling Mrs. 
Solinger? She has the report. 

The Chairman — All right. Mrs. Solinger, President of the Parents Association. 

Mrs. Solinger — Gentlemen of the Board of Aldermen : 

In the name of the Parents Association of this school, No. 39, I want to bid 
you welcome and to thank you for giving the Rockaways this chance to be heard. 

The Association of which I have the honor to be President, is of such recent 
birth that it is hardly advanced beyond the toddling stage, and while our footsteps 
are so uncertain, we feel that we are not mature enough yet to make official investiga- 
tions. It is therefore, as the result of common knowledge and not as the outcome 
of any activity of our Association that we are able to make the following statements : 

We are very proud of our school and with reason. In point of scholarship and 
powerful good in the community it has reached under the able management of our 
principal a point which can hardly be excelled. Every year, in competitive examina- 
tion with pupils or other schools, some member or members of our graduating class 
are awarded scholarships, and this year one member of the class has received the 
highest average mark ever given by the Board of Regents. 

With such a record we feel all the more keenly that our pupils and teachers should 
not be hampered and handicapped in their efforts by the physical limitations of the 
school buildings. 

Far Rockaway is a popular and populous Summer resort. During May, June 
and September, almost half of the school term, countless numbers of children are 
transferred from City schools to our school, and the seating capacity of our class 
rooms is taxed beyond the legal limit, adding to conditions which are already bad 
enough. 

We are glad that we are a growing community. In growth there is evidence of 
vitality, but we should like to receive the nourishment which will keep that vitality 
intact. During this school year, six or possibly more classes have had to be on "part 
time"; this not only deprives those classes of an hour's schooling to which they are 
legally entitled, but works to their physical disadvantage. These classes of children 
between the ages of 7 and 11 have to empty out their desks daily to make room for the 
succeeding class, and have to carry all their books to and from school, as there is no 
room for them in the school. Many of the children live as much as a mile away from 
the school. Do you think it is good for young children to walk such distances twice 
daily carrying several pounds of books? 

Other individuals and associations have been making investigation during the past 
years, and will be better able than we to tell you the result of their findings. We 
have reason to believe that our ills are being looked after, and that owing to unre- 
mitting efforts oh the part of our Progress Society and the more recent activities 
of our School Commissioner, Mr. Halpin, an appropriation of $55,000 has been ap- 
proved by the Board of Education. We understand that this appropriation will be 
utilized for the erection of an additional story on the main building, so that if the 
appropriation is ratified by the Board of Estimate and Apportionment, it will remedy 
the ills which I have referred to and make our school equal from' a physical stand- 
point to what it has already attained from the scholastic standpoint. Cherishing this 
hope, the whole of Far Rockaway is now, as it were, holding its thumbs. 

The Chairman — Would you mind submitting to a few questions that I formu- 



148 

lated while you were making your remarks? You mentioned during the months of 
May, June and September. What is the average registration year? 
Mrs. Solinger — That I do not know. 

Mr. Solinger — Including High School, 750 in the elementary and about 1,200 
including the high school. 

The Chairman — What is the seating capacity here? 
Mr. Solinger — It varies with different rooms. 
The Chairman — I mean in the entire building. 
Mr. Solinger — I do not know. I could not tell you that. 

The Chairman — I was trying to ascertain what was the cost of this part time in 
this school. 

Mrs. Solinger — The cost is not enough, I suppose, for all the teachers? 
The Chairman — Is Mrs. Sondheim the assistant? 
Mrs. Sondheim — We have six classes on part time. 
The Chairman — What is the attendance on an average? 

Mrs. Sondheim — I only have charge of the first five years of the elementary school, 
so I am not prepared to give exact statistics. 

The Chairman — What is the percentage of increase which you obtain during May, 
June and September. 

Mrs. Sondheim — We receive on an average of 100 to 150 extra at the beginning 
of May 1st. 

The Chairman — 100 to 150, that is May, June and September? 
Mrs. Sondheim — October, yes, the last of October. 
Alderman Friedlander — That is on part time now? 

Mrs. Sondheim — Without the additional pupils we have six classes on part time. 
The Chairman — Have they part time classes in the higher grades or just in 
the elementary? 

Mrs. Sondheim — We have only six primary part time classes. 

The Chairman — And how many do you have during May, June and September? 
I am simply trying to bring out the facts. 

Mr^. Sondheim — We do not have any more classes; we simply have the classes 
crowded. You see on an average we have to-day two extra half time for each year 
past two years. 

The Chairman — This $50,000 Mrs. Solinger was kind enough to tell us about, 
that would put an additional story on the new building, is that the main building? 
Mrs. Sondheim — The additional story on the main high school, that is directly 

left. 
The Chairman — And what will lie the addition. 
Mrs. Sondheim — That will be eight classes. 

The Chairman — That will be eight classes and that will relieve the conditions 
here? 

Mrs. Sondheim — I believe so. 
The Chairman — Mr. Leo Levy. 

Mr. Leo Levy — I have been asked to make some remarks, Mr. Chairman, and 
thank you for your kindness in coming here and giving us an opportunity of coming 
and telling the Committee one or two things, but I am placed at a serious disadvantage 
in lacking the essentia] figures that might set you right. 

It does, however, appear to me from one point of view that you gentlemen 
who pass ordinances affecting the whole people the capacity limited by your ordinances 
of theatres and tenement houses, measured by cubic contents and things of that kind, 
should seriously consider whether or not this projected addition to the high school 
should not be forced through by your recommendation. It is a purely tentative under- 
taking. I understand. It has not been ratified or approved by the Board of Estimate. 



149 

The appropriation has not gone through, so that the conditions that we are finding 
here in this school are as have been intimated to you by Mrs. Solinger and by the 
Vice-Principal, and you gentlemen who pass ordinances for theatres and tenements, 
if you measured simply the cubic contents of this building, you would close this school 
under your ordinances and would not permit any attendance here at all. It would be 
subject to condemnation and subject to a violation of every ordinance you have made. 

Therefore it seems to me on the physical aspect your Committee might well 
recommend that the Board of Estimate forthwith carry through that tentative appro- 
priation that has been made or suggested for the addition to the high school. 

On the question of the theoretical side of education I should hardly hazard any 
remarks, because we have in the Board of Education specialists who have given that 
subject years of careful study. I do not believe I would be as venturesome as to say 
that I have any familiarity at all with the merits or demerits, if any there be, of 
the Gary system or any other system, but I do know this : You have a building here 
that is absolutely inadequate for the purpose for which it is intended. It cannot 
serve the community: That that condition exists elsewhere in the City I am quite 
sure, or your committee would not be travelling around the City and getting almost 
the same words from the different communities. It, therefore, does seem to me. 
and I suggest to you that so far as the particular local needs are concerned of 
this institution, the physical aspects of the school are primarily the questions involved, 
and so far as the other aspects the training, that your Committee has more knowledge 
of, I guess, that you have acquired as a Committee, and far better than I guess any- 
body here could give you. It, therefore, does seem to me that I might well recom- 
mend your urgent action on the question of the addition to the High School building. 

The Chairman — Mr. Levy, pardon me; would it be possible for the parents 
or the others that are interested in this matter to prepare and submit to this Committee 
a more detailed statement showing the details in which this school is inadequate, to 
accommodate pupils? 

Mr. Levy — May I interrupt a moment? It does appear to me that the principal 
of the schools or the head of the schools has at hand all the statistics that would 
enlighten your Committee and any request from your Committee would be complied 
with in that regard, and if not possible to make it directly, I am sure of the 
President of the Parents Committee or the Progress Society would secure those 
essential statistics and see that you get them. 

The Chairman — You may send them if you are in a position to supply them. 

Mr. Levy — It is a possibility that Mr. Schwede could supply them. 

Mr. Schwede — Surely. 

The Chairman — I think probably the Assistant Principal could put us in touch 
with the Principal and arrange for that. 

Mr. Levy — Let the societies before your Committee promptly assume that burden. 

The Chairman — Alderman Friedlander desires to ask you a question, Mr. Levy. 

Alderman Friedlander — I want to ask you, Mr. Levy whether you had considered 
the question of part time? Would part time cure the condition that you referred to? 

Mr. Levy — I believe that it has been tried in a way here through the necessities 
of the situation./ How successfully, I am unable to say, but I do know that there 
has been a great deal of criticism amongst the family end of the situation, due to the 
disorder into which the households have been thrown, but I specifically said when I 
made my remarks at the. opening that I have no knowledge at all with regard to the 
Gary system, and therefore I prefer not to be placed on record, or to supply you 
with misinformation in that regard. 

The Chairman— Mr. Solinger, I interrupted you a minute ago. Will you proceed. 

Mr. Solinger— I was simply going to say some of the ladies of the Society fur- 
nished certain data and information in detail. 



150 

The Chairman — Go ahead. 

Mr. Solinger — I think you asked, or some reference was made to the Progress 
Society furnishing you with the details that you asked for. I think that if you ask the 
Parents Association they may be in a better position to give you that information. 

The Chairman — From whatever source we can obtain it, I know the Committee 
will appreciate it. 

Mr. Solinger — If I may just say one word. 
The Chairman — Certainly. 

Mr. Solinger — Comments have been made in the report read by Mrs. Solinger as 
well as other remarks about the overcrowded condition of the school. 

Certainly, inconveniences that have been brought about by this crowded condition 
have been referred to, but I would like to mention to the gentlemen of this Committee 
one very serious aspect of the part time or double system, whatever you wish to call 
it. I do not know what you do call it, or whether this same inconvenience will be 
continued by any other system. I do not know, but I would like you to take cogni- 
zance of this : 

That to-day we have little children who go to school from half past eight in the 
morning until half past twelve. They make room for another group of children 
who will occupy the same classes from half past twelve to half past four. Now, we 
are in the Springtime of the year, but that same condition exists in the Winter and 
we are living, you might say. in the country. We look upon School 39 and this 
whole community as the country. A great many of our children come a great 
distance, and I think it is wrong to ask the children of six or seven — mind you the 
part time system affects only the children of the younger classes — indeed it is 
absolutely wrong, and I think you will agree with me that a child 6 or 7 years of 
age should be kept in school until half past four, and then sent home on a dark 
Winter's afternoon alone, probably a mile or a mile and a quarter. 

In addition to that we all know that, parents, ministers, doctors will all tell you, 
that it is no time to instruct children from half past twelve to half past four in the 
afternoon. The child's vitality has decreased. It has tired by the morning's play. 
It is diminished. 

All of this is brought about simply because we have not got sufficient classrooms. 
We have not got the room in our school, and that is the physical difficulty, the physical 
need of School No. 39 which I alluded to when I first got up to make a few remarks, 
and that is what I wanted to impress upon this Committee, that 39 needs enlarge- 
ment, leaving all other remarks aside, it needs enlargement. 

Alderman Friedlander — That is practically an answer to the question I asked Mr. 
Levy. 

Mr. Solinger — That is required. 

Mrs. Brodick — They only refer to overcrowding of elementary schools. That 
applies also to the high schools. The students are compelled to use the lunch room, 
which some of them have to use as early as half past ten. That is no hour for lunch. 
They have to use the cooking rooms, I think about every inch of space is used to 
the limit in the high school. 

The Chairman — How many schools are there in the Rockaways? 

Mrs. Brodick — I believe this is just one; one in Arverne and one in Rockaway 
Beach, but this is the high school for this district. 

The Chairman — Also there are three elementary schools and one high school. 

Mrs. Brodick — Three elementary schools and one high school. 

Mrs. Sondheim — There are four. 

Mrs. Brodick — I big your pardon, they have two in Rockaway. 

The Chairman — Two in Rockaway, one in Arverne and one here? 

Mrs. Brodick — Yes, but all people come to this high school. 

The Chairman — This is the high school for the entire district? 



151 

Mrs. Brodick — This is the high school for the entire district, the high school. 

Mrs. Millis — I have a hetter knowledge of the Rockaway Beach schools than of 
the Far Rockaway school. About a month or 6 weeks ago I made an investigation 
of School 42 of Rockaway Beach, with other ladies. 

We made complaints to the Board of Education and to Mr. Collins the Super- 
intendent. We received a reply that some of the alterations are to be made, but 
there are some things still which we would like to be altered. Mr. Halpin unfor- 
tunately has the papers and he is at another meeting tonight we would very much 
like for instance, we have three class rooms in P. S. 42, with no artificial light. They 
have no way of being lighted at all. There is not one gas jet. There is no electirc 
light in the school I think anyway. There is only gas, but they have no fixtures 
at all, so that by half past four when it begins to get dark in the Winter time the 
children really are not able to do anything and the teachers have to keep them quiet. 

There is a connection to the sewers which should be made, from the entrance 
to the schools. There are three entrances, the janitor's, the boys' and the girls' en- 
trance. There is a sewer connection which should be made through to carry off the 
surface water. 

There was some complaint about the plumbing, but I believe those are to be 
attended to, but I should like to emphasize the fact that P. S. 42 and P. S. 43, I 
think are largely used for the younger classes. The idea is to get an addition to 
P. S. 44 so that the larger children can be taken care of in 44. 

The Chairman— Are these all in the Rockaways ? 

Mrs. Brodick — All in Rockaway Beach. 

The Chairman — Four? 

Mrs. Brodick — 44 is in the center, it is Holland where we are. 

The Chairman — Where is P. S. 43? 

Mrs. Brodick — Rockaway Park, Seaside. 

The Chairman— And P. S. 44? 

Mrs. Millis — Arverne. The building in 44 is more situated for alteration. There 
is an extension to be put to that building and I believe that the money has already 
been passed. 

The Chairman — For 44? 

Mrs. Millis — For 44, but we don't get it, it has been going on for years and years, 
and we don't get the money. We have no notice of the thing going through, and the 
addition is very badly needed for all the schools are overcrowded. 

I would like to say that in P. S. 42, I am nearer 42, and do visit is occasionally. 
I have seen the children at lunch time taking their lunch off the floor, with not a 
seat in it. There is not a seat there for those children except a little common seat 
that the -janitor put together, and on one occasion I think Mrs. Montgomery saw 
nine or ten of the small children sitting there. 

The Chairman — On the floor? 

Mrs. Millis— On the floor. 

The Chairman — No seats at all? 

Mrs. Millis — -There are no seats. 

The Chairman — No seats at all? 

Mrs. Millis— And there is no way those children have of sitting at all, and the 
concrete is not dry, it is damp. It is a very bad condition indeed and it should be 
attended to. 

The Chairman — Why couldn't these children eat their lunch in the class room, 
if those conditions are as you state? 

Mrs. Millis — Those class rooms are in use all the time. We have part time there. 

The Chairman — You talk about four thirty. Have you classes beyond five or 
five thirty? 



152 

Mrs. Millis — They have classes right up to near dark, in the Winter time. 

The Chairman — Have you the Gary system in Rockaway? 

Mrs. Millis — No, part time system. It is not Gary's. 

The Chairman — They have classes from 8.30 in the morning until 5. 

Mrs. Millis — I think that ,s about the time; you know when it is dark about 4:30 
in the Winter. 

The Chairman — You are speaking now in regard to P. S. 42? 

Mrs. Millis — Yes. 

The Chairman — Tell me more in detail about the three classes that you referred 
to that have absolutely no light or air. 

Mrs. Millis — They have no artificial light; they have no fixtures. 

The Chairman — Have they street light, have they no air? 

.Mrs. Millis — Yes, they have street light, but it is dark at that time. 

The Chairman — But up to 4:30 they have sufficient light? 

Mrs. Millis — Up to 4:30, probably; it is dark in the Winter time then. 

The Chairman— In those three you recommend that gas or electricity be in- 
stalled ? 

Mrs. Millis — There is no electric light in the building, but gas fixtures certamly 
sin mid lie installed. It is a very bad condition. 

The Chairman— How old a school is that? 

Mrs. Millis — The school was built just before consolidation. 

The Chairman— 1898. 

Mrs. Millis — That is about twenty years, and I understand that since that time 
nothing has been done to it. It was hurried through. Trie people had some sort of a 
feeling about getting thai school, I believe, because of the fear that they would never 
gel anything there, and it seems they have not got anything else. 

The Chairman — Is it a brick building? 

Mrs. Millis — Yes, it is a brick building. 

The Chairman — Go ahead. 

Mrs. Millis — I don't know. The thing I would like to emphasize is we should 
have that addition to Public School 44, so as to take care of the older children. It 
has been on the books for years. I could not tell you how many years. I could not 
tell you how many years. Unfortunately our report is not here to-night. The gentle- 
man who has it could not show up, so we have been unable to show it. 

The Chairman — 1 would be glad to receive any further recommendation you might 
or that you left with Mr. Halpin. to whom you refer. 

Mrs. Millis — Yes, I have given it to him already. 

The Chairman- -You may submit any data you would like to. We would be glad 
to have yo.t submit it in writing and read into the record at some subsequent hearing. 

Mr. Frederick Schwede — I asked to be the last speaker, because I was hoping that 
even in this miserable and insultingly small gathering there would be men and women 
In tier qualified than 1 to speak on this particular subject, who would touch what 
to me to be the vital point in the whole matter. 
ire wc go any further, however, I want to do what I think is only justice 
and courtesy to this Committee, who have shown one of the few idealistic spirits that 
I have seen in politics, and that is to personally come down and investigate for 
themselves and take up their time after regular day hours, and find out at first hand 
the needs of the various complaining communities. Such a state as that I think is 
very badly met by a gathering of parents as small as this in the midst of a storm 
of abuse and criticsm and complaint as large as yearly rages in our midst. 

The kind of personal criticism that goes no farther than friction and irritation 
of the school authorities, the devious, vague, useless, annoying amateur advice given 
to men and women wdio, no matter how competent or incompetent, at least, live the 



153 

life of education, must be extremely annoying and defeats its own ends more often 
than it does any good. 

As far as the parents of this community go, I must ask your indulgence. They 
are like most of the other members of our community, extremely selfish, extremely 
indifferent where personal effort is concerned and extremely voluble in general 
criticism. The only reason that I ask your committee to go further and excuse them 
is for the sake of the children. I do not believe a gathering of this kind, greeting a 
committee of your importance and your willingness to sacrifice yourself for generd 
good, 1 do not think that a gathering of this kind, furnished by this community, 
deserves very much. However, as I say, it is not the children's fault, and the general 
theory is, my particular absence will not do any harm. All the others will be there, 
is the theory on which we have built up our great democracy. 

I have another criticism which seems to me to be even more pertinent, and the 
man I shall criticise is the man with whom I have always been friendly, but I am 
not given to evading issues, nor do I care to shirk responsibility. I do not know 
what the relation the Board of Education or the City government is to its principals, 
but when there is a definite performance and a definite occasion, such as this 
scheduled in advance by you, if the principal is not here to answer proper questions, 
to furnish proper information, it seems to me that a very proper inquiry rises why he is 
not here, and if there is a legitimate reason, common courtesy demands that it should 
have been sent in advance. When a layman like myself is obliged, a man who pre- 
tends he has no knowledge of school affairs save such as the parents of a child, who 
frankly does not ask a hand in its government or criticisms of its affairs, because he 
does not give the proper time, sacrifice or investigation to warrant him in being such 
a critic, I think that a community is ill looked after along avenues of education 
when an incompetent, frankly ignorant man has to get up, sustained only by a motive 
of righteous indignation. 

So much for the audience you have to address. So much for the sources of 
information from which you have to gather it. 

Now, I will go ahead, to what seems to me in a general way to comprehend, 
include and obviate all the petty criticisms that have arisen. 

I say petty, because when all is said we must not look at this age and generation 
that we are living in through a microscope. It is too broad. The world is changing 
color while we look at it, and it seems to me that even a city administration so large 
as that of New York City, practically a State administration, has a very plausible 
excuse to ask that its hands should he untied at the present moment, that its channels 
be as little clogged as possible with whatever is not absolutely essential, that it may 
be free to raise and face the great events that are occurring. 

If our need were not so pressing I should be the first to advocate standing aside 
and hearing our comparatively mild ailments with fortitude until the great crisis 
is passed, and as far as my own puny little views are concerned I am willing to do 
that. As far as my own children are concerned, and I think we all, my neighbors, 
are willing to do that. 

But Mr. Chairman, and your Committee, I want to tell you from another stand- 
point what the r^al problem of Far Rockaway and the Rockaways has been. As a 
member of the Board of Directors of the Progress Society, a perfectly non-partisan 
organization, a civic movement giving you the best that is in us for no reason at all, 
not even including the appreciation of our fellow citizens, the great trouble with the 
Rockaways has always been that we are an infinitesmal tail on a very large dog. 
We cannot wag in any sense at all. We have no political power. We have no way 
to make our pleasure or displeasure felt, and the answer is we cannot influence the 
government at the center of this city, and that includes the Board of Education as 
well as other boards. 



154 

If I believed that this appropriation of $50,000 were even a strong probability 
as an accomplished fact, I should not take up your time, but in the past we have been 
put off by one parliamentary expediency after another, soothed while we barked, 
ignored while we remained silent. What will happen to this $55,000 in the devious 
channels of City government? I confess myself too simple to know, but that it will 
never flow down this stream under the great bridge of conditions, I as a sporting 
character am willing to wager. I do not know what happens to them, but whatever 
is the final push that would land them into actual being, that always remains undone, 
and we have the same steps to pursue the next year or two years after that, that 
we did when we began. 

We have had appropriations before, but we have never had any additions to our 
schools. 

Here is what I want to say to you. The Gary system — the individual discomfort 
to which the children are put, the inadequate conditions that prevail, are all parts of 
the same problems. Additional seats will obviate them all, so there is no use of going 
down by paths and ramifications and taking up your time there, but if you will make 
yourselves our friends, we will stop barking at your heels and we will stop urging 
you to action which probably at certain times is as impossible for you to take as it is 
your will and intentions strong to make it. If you will make yourselves our friends 
and don't forget it, whenever you will act, if you will act as friends, when you see 
something put over on us — if there is a crisis in the City government, if the money 
is needed for other and greater affairs, just spend it. We will be reasonable. We 
will be good. We will be careful. But if on the other hand you see something being 
done in the devious and tortuous paths of the great city government that you know 
is going to euchre us at the finish, put in a suit for us. Then we will put up a tablet 
for you, name by name. (Applause). 

If you will do that you can count on our co-operation and on our reasonable 
action and on our deep and extreme gratitude. (Applause). 

Mrs. Schwede— I would like to be heard on a very simple statement. It is 
probably very clear to you gentlemen, but I would like to make it clearer. 

The City of New York recognizes these transfers of children from Manhattan 
down here in the summer time, and that is a recognized fact. All the mother has 
to do in Manhattan or wherever the child comes from is to tell the principal she is 
moving to Far Rockaway for the summer and she gets a card which gives her a 
transfer and the child is put in these schools. 

Either the Board of Education is going to recognize that condition for us down 
lure, when hundreds and hundreds of children arrive, anywhere between the 15th 
of May and June. 

The Chairman — 150 I understand. 

Mrs. Schwede — 1 think a great many. Mrs. Sondheim, how much would you 
say? 

Mrs. Sondheim — 150. 

Mrs. Schwede — In your care? 

Mrs. Sondheim — 150. 

Mrs. Schwede — In the elementary school. 150 in the elementary schools. That is 
the first five grades. Could you give any idea in the whole school, how many arrived 
in the whole school? 

Mrs. Sondheim — 200 to 250. 

Mrs. Schwede — That is a condition that I do not think is generally understood. 
It is not generally looked into. Either the Board of Education recognizes that and 
realizes that we have to have seats for them or it does not recognize them. 

Mrs. Sondheim — That would be like creating five new classes. 

Alderman Collins — Does that practically mean that 30 go into each one? You 
say 150 in five classes. 



155 

Mrs. Sondheim — About 150 is spread over the grades. There is no seating 
capacity for those children. That is well known in 59th Street in New York, 
in the Board of Education. 

Alderman Collins — About how many ? 

Mrs. Sondheim — It varies, about 150. 

Mrs. Schwede — How many times have you entered a room where in big letters 
it had a notice on the door, "only 39 children allowed here" and you go in and there 
are 55. 

The Chairman — I noticed that on the door downstairs. 

Mrs. Schwede — I have observed that a dozen times. 

Alderman Friedlander — Did any one here notify the principal of this meeting 
to-night? 

Mrs. Schwede — Yes. 

The Chairman — Where is he? 

Alderman Haubert — Where does the principal reside, in Rockaway? 

Alderman Friedlander — Why is he not here? 

Mrs. Schwede — Mr. Ellsworth is a very good man, but he is extremely averse 
to censure, almost morbid. On the other hand he has to meet a flood of petty 
criticism during the year, illy digested, and usually in a great many instances un- 
necessary. It has rendered him combative to the last degree. I think he tolerates 
the Parents Association rather than approves of it, and he would not give it 
countenance by appearing here to-night, and as I know, as far as the Parents As- 
sociation is concerned, I do not know whether there would have been very much 
criticism. But he knew of it. It had been posted. He is one of the Progress 
Society which fostered this meeting. He knew you were to b'e here, and as I 
say, he should have sent a note explaining he would not be here, with the statistics 
and deputize some one with statistics. That would have done very well, but we 
have been made to look very futile under these conditions, and I do not know just 
what the procedure would be, but I would just respectfully suggest that your Com- 
mittee would communicate with him and state that they were unable to get the statis- 
tics that they desired at this meeting during his absence, and then take up his time in 
getting some. 

The Chairman — Well, we may do it in executive session. 

Mrs. Montgomery — I am from Arverne, and I saw Mr. Gilmore the Super- 
intendent of our schools last week, who is the principal of our school our three 
schools. We have No. 42, 43 and 44. 

The Chairman — Who is Mr. Collins? 

Mrs. Montgomery — The Superintendent of Buildings in New York. 

This Mr. Gilmore told me that the Board of Trade had taken up this matter 
years ago, and that the Board of Trade of Rockaway Beach and the Board of 
Superintendents had approved an addition to School 44 as far back as June 1912. 
That it was away up on the list to come before the Board of Estimate, as I 
understand. 

I want to say that each teacher of our three schools on the beach has not only 
improper conditions of the class rooms to contend with but she has two classes to 
take care of, two distinct grades to teach each day on top of that. 

The Chairman — Simultaneously, Mrs. Montgomery? 

Mrs. Montgomery — No. It does it in this way. She gives the children written 
work while the other class is reciting. It has always been a puzzle to me how 
those children of those tender years, are able to concentrate while the chatter is 
going on in the other part of the room. 

Then I would like to say that one of the former speakers has said there would 
be perhaps 150 new scholars. I know that there are hundreds of new scholars 
that come to our three schools in the beginning of the Spring and early Summer. 



156 

There are hundreds of them, because these three schools take in a tremendous 
territory. It is perhaps 3 or 5 miles in length, and if anyone here knows any- 
thing about Rockaway Beach you know that it is tremendously crowded in the 
Summer time, and these little children come from New York and have to be ac- 
commodated in these class rooms that are overcrowded in Winter, and these teachers 
have two classes in each room to teach during the Winter and have this condition 
to conter.d with that I speak of. 

The Chairman — Where do the Rockaway Park children go? 
Mrs. Montgomery — Rockaway Park children go to P. S. 43. 
The Chairman — That is the other extreme? 

Mrs. Montgomery — Yes, and P. S. 44 is the center, about Hollands. 
The Chairman — And Public School 42. 
Mrs. Montgomery — Is in Arverne. 
The Chairman — Any other speaker? 

\Mrrman Quint) — Mrs. Montgomery, what percentage of children do you figure 
Rockaway Park has going elsewhere during the Summer? Aren't there some people 
that Summer in other places, that live in Rockaway in the Winter? 

Mrs. Montgomery — Strange to say there are very few families that leave the 

in the Summer time. 
Alderman Quinn — Not enough to take the places of those who come down here? 
Mrs. Montgomery — No. A great many people rent their houses, but you find 
mostly all of them take smaller accommodations for themselves during the Summer, 
for the simple reason they get a good rent for the houses and leave them and rent 
them, to incoming New York people, so that they may take smaller places on the 
Bi ich. Very few comparatively leave the Beach for the Summer. 

Vlderman Quinn — There is not sufficient decrease to take the place of the in- 
crease? 

Mrs. Montgomery — No. If anything, it is a very small matter. 
Mr. Brady — There has been some criticism as to why the school representatives 
are not here, that is the direct school employees. I might say that the meeting itself 
has not been entirely overlooked. The District Superintendent of Schools is on the 
job, that has charge of all schools in this district, and a great many others, and 
he is here to hear the complaints and statements made by parents and representatives 
of other organizations. I want to say that for him. and also for the entire teaching 
-tall that thej an- u.it neglectful at all, as a general rule the majority of them, as 
to the necessities "f proper educational facilities. I am frank to say that if the 
recommendations <>f the teaching staff were carried out in this City that there would 
not lie any complaint from the Parents Association or any other kind of organiza- 
tions as to the administration of the school affairs. One of our greatest troubles 
has been that while the teachers and parents may get together, the conclusions which 
they arrive at are ignored entirely by the people who are administering the school 
affairs in this City, (applause). 

The Chairman — Any further speakers? 

Mr. Schwede — The District Superintendent of Schools is here and I asked him 
if he would speak, and he said that it might be regarded as an intrusion of an 
Outsider practically. This is a rural affair purely and simply, but I think if you 
ask him, he can give us a great deal of information. 

The Chairman — We would be glad to have the District Superintendent speak. 
Mr. Veit — I would like to make a correction right at the start. In the first 
place I am not the District Superintendent in charge of the Borough of Queens, 
or this end of it. When I came here tonight I came largely as a parent who 
lives in tliis neighborhood. I have a daughter that attends this school, and I have 
always been interested in this school. 

From the discussion as 1 have heard it, it appears to me that there is a ques- 



157 

tion as to where to place the blame for not furnishing school accommodations. 
Connected as I have been for the last 2S or more years with the Department of 
Education, it has been my experience that local school boards and committees in 
charge of furnishing sites and buildings have to a very large extent been amenable 
to argument, and to statistical proof that a school building was needed or an 
addition was needed. In recent years, however, when .after careful consideration 
of the reports that were furnished by experts, it has transpired that the action 
of the Board of Education itself in making these recommendations for improvements 
and additions has had to be approved by somebody else. We in the schools feel 
that the law is very specific, and we also know in our own hearts that the Board 
of Education has the right to pass on just what improvements should be made and 
what additions should be furnished. 

As I understand it, in the meeting of the Board of Education that took place 
some two months ago, recommendations were made for many districts in the City 
of New York to provide more accommodations. This particular school, as I under- 
stand it, has been taken care of by the Board of Education. 

Alderman Friedlander — This school? 

Mr. Veit — As far as I have been able to learn, the Board of Education recom- 
mended, or certainly recommended for P. S. 39 Queens. 

The Chairman — $55,000 is the amount. 

Mr. Veit — I think that is the amount. 

The Chairman — Has that money been voted upon by the Board of Education? 

Mr. Veit — No. The Board of Education can simply make the recommendations. 
The point is, that ought to be sufficient. The Board of Education knows. 

The Chairman — I think I have got your point of view. Your point of view is 
that the Board of Education should be a corporate entity, separate and should 
have sole power over its own funds? 

Mr. Veit — If the Board of Education were so placed, I think we would get 
along better with the parents and community. 

Alderman Friedlander — That matter is now before the Legislature. 

Mr. Veit — But you recognize as well as I do that whenever recommendations are 
made for the appropriation of certain amounts of money that that has got to be 
O. K'ed somewhere else. 

The Chairman — The Board of Estimate. 

Mr. Veit — And the Board of Estimate has its own expert that it calls a com- 
mittee on sites and buildings and it seeks his judgment and simply brushes it 
aside, and I suppose that is how it happens that many a time the promise is made 
for buildings and additions in the Rockaway have been just brushed aside. 

Alderman Haubert — Do you know whether any of the efficiency engineers have 
visited the Rockaways? 

Mr. Veit — I really don't know. I am not familiar with the Rockaways. 

Alderman Friedlander — When was this appropriation passed by the Board of 
Education? 

Mr. Veit — If I remember correctly I think at the meeting that was held in 
March or the first meeting in April. 

Alderman Friedlander — 1917? 

*Mr. Veit — 1917. That a sum of money was supposed to be set aside for school 
additions, new buildings and so on, and that recommendation was made then for 
P. S. 39 in Queens. 

Alderman Quinn — Has the Board of Estimate pruning knife got hold of that 
$55,000 yet? 

Mr. Veit — That is a question in my mind. I do not know. Some people are afraid 
that may not go through. I suppose your Committee is here tonight to hear the 
parents of the children who attend this school, urge the necessity for that sum sticking 



158 

where the Board of Education has recommended it shall go. This school needs an 
addition. The schools of the Rockavvays are just as bad. I recall back in P. S. 44 
Queens, that is a school in Rockaway on a recent occasion when I was especially 
assigned to visit somewhere there, I noticed the difficulties of organization even in 
the Winter time. 

I know for a fact that in the Summer time it is necessary to bring down a great 
many more teachers and to place the children on part time in order to accommodate 
those who come down from the City and that population usually stays until the middle 
of October. 

The Chairman — You are connected with the Board of Education? 

Mr. Veit — Yes. 

The Chairman — In what capacity, as District Superintendent? 

Mr. Veit — I am District Superintendent of District Schools 32 and 36 

The Chairman — Where are they located? 

Mr. Veit — Which comprises a very large section of Brooklyn. 

Alderman Egan — Do you know anything about this school they are organizing in 
Broad Channel? 

Mr. Veit — I haven't heard anything of it. 

\M< ;in in Egan — They are asking for an appropriation of the Finance Committee, 
of which I am a member for a portable school. 

Mr. Veit — I passed there every morning, and I noticed that there must be quite a 
population there of school age. 

Alderman Collins — That is a Summer population. Quite a crowd stays there in the 
Summer. 

Mr. Veit — These portable buildings are two room or unit structures. 

Alderman Collins — Just for the Summer or all Winter? 

Mr. Veit — I really could not tell. 

Alderman Collins — Is there much of a population in Broad Channel or where do 
they get the children from. 

Mr. Veit — There are something like seven or eight hundred houses all the year 
around, maybe about SO open during the Winter. 

Mrs. Montgomery — I want to give the information the gentleman just spoke about. 

Mrs. Fernandez — The $55,000 asked for by the Board of Education for this school, 
thai has been approved by the Committee on Education of the Board of Estimate 
( applause). 

Mrs. Montgomery — Those three schools on the trestle, they have a large Winter 
population, and the children from these three sections come to our school No. 44. 
They have tickets given them which they use on the train to and from, and they come, 
as I say, to this crowded school that I have been speaking of before, which is just on 
a line through the Holland Station. All the children from Broad Channel and all 
I hat section, they have no other school facilities. 

The Chairman — Any further speakers. If not. the next hearing on this subject 
will be held Wednesday evening May 16th at 8 P. M., at Bushwick Highschool, Irving 
and Brooklyn Avenues. Brooklyn. 

MINUTES OF HEARING BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON GENERAL WEL- 
FARE OF THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN ON THE FOLLOWING MATTER: 
" No. 1242. — Request of the conference of organized labor to the Board to hold 
hearings and to invite the Board of Education and city officials to answer why 
the demands for better educational facilities have not been requested." 
Bushwick High School, Irving Avenue, Brooklyn, May 16, 1917, 8 P. M. 
Present— Aldermen Robitzek, Chairman, Collins, Cassidy, Habbert, Friedlander. 
Chairman Robitzek — This is a public hearing by a sub-committee of the Com- 
mittee on General Welfare of the Board of Aldermen to consider a petition which 



159 

has been presented to the Board by the Conference of Organized Labor. The object 
of these hearings is in order that the Board may obtain information and data, to 
prepare a report on the conditions of the schools of the City of New York. 

The petitioners claim that there is an inadequacy of schools ; that the schools 
are not kept up to a proper standard. We are not investigating the Gary or the 
Anti-Gary system. We are simply incidentally taking up the Gary question as it is 
presented in these different hearings. These hearings are a continuation. We have 
been holding these hearings all over the city. This will be the last hearing that will 
be held in Brooklyn. The next hearing will be held next Thursday night at Wadleigh 
High School, between 114th Street and 115th Street, Manhattan. The names that 
have been presented here of those that are desirous of speaking at this hearing I 
will call in their order. Judge Richards. 

Hon. Edward A. Richards — Mr. Chairman, I take the liberty of coming here to 
the Bushwick section to talk with you about a matter of the high school conditions 
that affects the Bushwick, the East New York and the Brownsville districts, and 
I would not invade upon your time in this matter were it not for the fact that since 
your hearing at Public School 84, a matter has been called to my attention which I 
think is of interest not only to the High School Committee of 100 for East New 
York and Brownsville, but also of vital interest to the people of the Bushwick 
district. 

There was, in 1911, an amount of $715,000 appropriated by the Board of Education, 
or by the Board of Estimate at the request of the Board of Education, for a supply 
depository building for the Board of Education. As you know, the high school site 
oh Dumont Avenue has remained vacant and has been owned by the city for five 
ye.ars. The reason no high school has been built there is because of lack of funds. 
When the Board of Education asked for the appropriation of $6,000,000 for high 
school buildings throughout the city, they did not include the high school for Browns- 
ville, and now, in March, there has been a request made by the Board of Education 
to the Board of Estimate for permission to use the Hallenbeck building on the New 
York County Court House site for a supply depository ; and they have made a request 
upon the Board of Aldermen and the Board of Estimate for the issuance of special 
revenue bonds in the sum of $35,000, for the purpose of remodeling that Hallenbeck 
building, and they have agreed that if that is given to them they will ask the rescission 
of this appropriation of $715,000, and will appropriate that amount for school buildings. 

I am informed, by. Miss Ford, of the Committee of Education of the Board of 
Estimate, that that Committee and the Board of Estimate recognize the urgent 
necessity for additional high school facilities out here, and would feel favorably 
disposed to the use of this $715,000 for the Dumont Avenue high school if the Board 
of Education would request that appropriation. 

This matter is of vital interest to the people of the Bushwick and Ridgewood 
sections, because this high school where we are now meeting is overcrowded, having 
on its register, as I remember it, nearly 3,700 pupils and having seating capacity for 
less than 2,500. And the children that are overcrowding this high school are the 
children that come primarily from the East New York and the Brownsville districts, 
and I believe that your committee would be of great service to the people of this 
district if you would advocate the use of this Hallenbeck building, which will not be 
used for any other purpose for many years, will advocate the use of that for a 
supply depository, and will urge upon your board the granting of this appropriation 
of $3,500 for repairs to that building, and will suggest to the Board of Education the 
advisability of using the $715,000 for a high school for East New York and Browns- 
ville. 

Chairman Robitzek — To what extent will that relieve conditions in this section ? 

Hon. Edward A. Richards — I am told that the high school that they contemplate 
building on the Dumont Avenue site will take care of about 5,000 children. I know 



160 

that you have here in this school perhaps 800 or 900, or a thousand children, from 
Brownsville and East New York, if you have not more than that. 

Chairman Robitzek — That is a distance of about two and a half to three miles? 

Hon. Edward A. Richards — I figured it about three miles, not as the crow flies, 
but riding by trolley. 

Chairman Robitzek — Do the children from the Brownsville section going to and 
from this section — they ride, of course? 

Hon. Edward A. Richards — Most of them ride ; some of them may possibly walk. 

Chairman Robitzek — Are the transportation facilities convenient? 

Hon. Edward A. Richards — Yes ; the transportation facilities are quite con- 
venient, but the cost, of course, is 10 cents a day to those who have not got it. 

Chairman Robitzek — I understand. How long has this building been erected? 

Hon. Edward A. Richards — As I remember it, a little over four years. 

Chairman Robitzek — And it is already overcrowded? 

Hon. Edward A. Richards — It is very much overcrowded. 

Chairman Robitzek — Thank you. Mrs. Sullivan, Secretary of the Mothers' Council 
of Greenpoint. 

Mrs. K. Sullivan — Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: I am representing the 
section of Brooklyn known as Greenpoint. Perhaps you have had occasion to read 
something about it in the paper very recently, an article stating in many of the 
papers that our people have gone on strike, mothers and children alike. Well, that 
is true in one sense of the word, but what we meant was not a strike, but a protest. 

Our entire district in Greenpoint, the northern section above Greenpoint I speak 
of, was deprived of a grammar school. Well, in our section we had two schools 
there; one located on Java street, between Franklin and Manhattan, and the other 
located on Dupont street, between Franklin and Manhattan. 

Some years ago Java street school was de-graded and turned into a primary 
school. On the 30th day of April last the grammar school in Dupont street was de- 
graded, and it was decided to send the children of that school to public school No. 
126 that had been Garyized, which meant for many of the children a walk of 13 to 
17 and 19 blocks. 

Chairman Robitzek — Where is that school that you are speaking of now, madam? 

Mrs. Sullivan — On Lorimer street; Guernsey street, the girls' entrance is, and 
Meserole avenue, School 126. 

The parents protested. They asked for an interview with Mr. Willcox, President 
of the Board of Education, which was given to us, and a committee of 45 women 
waited on him at the Board of Education on the Saturday previous to the trans- 
ferring of the children. We asked him to use his influence. We tried to put the 
situation as clearly as we possibly could and explained to him the people living in that 
section were mostly made up of just the ordinary workaday people of the world. 
We have a number of children in the district who are anaemic. Many are crippled 
and some have heart failure and many have tuberculosis in one form or another. 
Some are arrested cases, others are not. 

Mr. Willcox listened to us. First, he started to give us statistics, and I asked 
him to please refrain from such a thing, as they would be lost on the multitude, that 
it was a common sense proposition ; we were dealing with human flesh, children, and 
to please let us get down to brass tacks and talk about children. He did. We tried 
to make it appear to him that this was not an imposition alone, but a cruelty. 

And, ladies and gentlemen, it really is. We have one case in mind. I wish Mr. 
Chairman, if it were possible, there could be a committee of some kind to see the 
little girl I have reference to. Out of respect to her people I will refrain from 
mentioning her name, but she is a little girl who is wearing a brace from the hip 
clear to the foot. This child is compelled to walk 13 blocks to reach this school. 

Ladies and gentlemen, I have in my book here a letter which I received from Mr. 



161 

Willcox, President of the Board of Education, and being very hoarse from incessant 
work and worry and running around about this matter, I will pass it to the Chair- 
man, and if he will be kind enough, or feel disposed to read it, I wish that he would 
do so. 

Mr. Willcox promised in this letter that he would grant us every accommodation 
that he possibly could. 

The Chairman — Why don't you read it yourself, madam? 

Mrs. Sullivan — With the kindness of the people, Mr. Chairman and ladies and 
gentlemen present, I will. I am rather hoarse, but if you will have patience with 
me and forgive my little imperfections I will try. 

Mr. Willcox's letter commences : 
" Dear Mrs. Sullivan : 

I was very much impressed with the . urnestness and sincerity of purpose of the 
group of mothers who accompanied you on Saturday to the Board of Education to talk 
with me about the situation in Greenpoint. 

As I told you then, I sympathize with your position and quite appreciate your 
reluctance to accept any change in school organization which means that your chil- 
dren will be moved from the school in whose classes they have heretofore been edu- 
cated. I also appreciate the fact that for some of you the proposed change means 
that it will be necessary for you to send your children a greater distance to school, 
and I realize that this may result in serious inconvenience. I wish I could see some 
way of bringing about a solution which is satisfactory to yourself and which fits 
in with the duty of the Board of Education to relieve congestion in P S. 31. 

After talking with you Saturday I conferred with the Acting City Superintendent, 
with Superintendent McAndrew and with Superintendent McCabe. We were all 
inclined to do everything that could be done to meet your objections, but we none of 
us felt that it was possible to continue all the children in P. S. 31 who are now 
accommodated there. There is ample space for them in P. S. 126 and they will get 
the advantage of a modern, sanitary and well equipped school building. 

The Health Department has complained of the overcrowding in P. S. 31, and it is 
our duty, as a Board of Education, to relieve the situation as promptly as we can. 
The only way that it can be relieved is by transferring the pupils. The only pupils 
that can be transferred are the older children who are able to walk increased distance. 
We would be neglectful of our duty as members of the Board of Education, and 
as superintendents if we did not act for the best interests of the children. In our 
mind there is no question but that the best interests of the children require the carry- 
ing out of the proposed transfer. 

We have, however, asked. Superintendent McCabe to take the necessary steps to 
establish in P. S. 31- special classes for the crippled and the anaemic, or to make other 
provision for them, so that they will not be required to travel a distance to school 
which is too great for their strength. 

In any other way we can accommodate ourselves to the needs of the locality, you 
may be sure we will do all in our power. I am sure you will in a short time appreci- 
ate our willingness in this respect, and that you will be led to see the wisdom of our 
course. 

If, after giving the arrangement a fair trial for the remainder of this term, 
any large proportion of parents of the 7th and 8th grade children, still feel dissatis- 
fied, I shall be glad to bring the matter up for further consideration before the 
opening of the Fall term." 

Sincerely Yours, WILLIAM G. WILLCOX, President of the Board of Education." 
Chairman Robitzek — What is the date of that communication? 
Mrs. Sullivan— May 1, 1917. 

Ladies and Gentlemen — I want to say that when we brought this matter up to 
Mr. McCabe regarding this letter, there has been no provision or no attempt at pro- 



162 

vision for the anaemic or crippled children. Each and every child has been considered 
alike. And there have been no steps for the making room for them in Public School 
31. Now, as you ladies and gentlemen all know, it is not necessary for me to bring up 
the fact that the cost of living has increased. Many, many times — well, since two years 
— in fact, in a few months — it has jumped to such a figure that in our section there 
are many people who feel they cannot commence to cope with it. Our men, many 
of them, come in from factories in the locality and there is one meal served at the 
noon hour. That is the mainstay of the family. That is the meal that gives the 
nourishment to the children, to the mother, to the father, and the entire family. 
If those children are obliged to come this distance, many of them cannot be home 
for that meal, for they have the duplicate plan in P. S. 126, just the same as they had 
in 31 before it was disrupted or de-graded, but they have different lunch hours. 

There is not one mother out of ten in our district who can afford to give the 
children car fare. There is not one mother out of five who can afford to give them 
lunch money, and if she could, our children are compelled to go into a restaurant 
to procure anything to eat, for there is no lunch room attached to P. S. 126. 

There is a gentleman connected with one of the New York papers who told me 
he walked around the school and he said it reminded him of a lot of laborers sitting 
around a building in the course of construction. At the noon hour he saw plenty 
of little children sitting outside the school building on the curb stone and on stoops, 
wherever they could find a seat, until they were driven away by property owners, 
to eat their bit, simply rather than walk the distance to get home and back in time 
for lunch. 

They have been connected with the Board of Health in our city schools, men and 
women, who teach hygiene. Why waste the city's funds and talk about lack of money 
to build schools when they take the means of practicing hygiene from the hands of 
our children? If the children are obliged to walk IS to 17 or 19 blocks, how can 
they do it? There is no child that can make one block to a minute, because some 
of our blocks are very long. And we have a crossing at Greenpoint avenue, which 
is a very busy thoroughfare and a very dangerous thoroughfare. There are cars going 
north, south, east and west, and the heavy loaded motor trucks are a dangerous thing 
to adults as well as children. 

If our children cannot make it in time, the only thing is we are going to have a lot 
of anaemic children, or perhaps worse, we will have a lot of corpses in our dis- 
trict, because it cannot be possible that the amount of money people can spend to-day 
for a meal to give children nourishment and send them that distance to school, rush- 
ing them back for the noonday meal, or else having that child in the park, which is 
known as McCarren Park in that section, to eat a cold and dry lunch. Every man and 
woman present will agree there isn't any nourishment in a cold and dry lunch for 
an adult, and where can it be a benefit for a child? 

I know of no man who is willing to go to work in a factory, or in any kind of 
an office and take 15 minutes for lunch a day, nothing but dry pieces of bread. If 
our children cannot afford tea or coffee, and must go into a restaurant to procure it, 
they are going to eat a piece of dry bread. Butter is a luxury for some of our people 
to-day, and that means that our children in many cases, if they cannot procure meals, 
they procure something else, and, gentlemen, you know what it is: Two pieces of 
bread without anything on it, for a little tot to take away. That is what we are 
going to look forward to for our future citizens. It is a frightful thing. It is a 
despotic thing, to deprive a district of working people of a grammar school for their 
children. 

We have not asked fur luxuries. We ask nothing at all, only to leave P. S. 31 
just as it was. We were willing to put up with it, even though our taxes had been 
increased in the last couple of years to such an extent, without any transportation 



163 

facilities ; and now to take away our school is an outrage. It will take away the only 
asset Greenpoint has. We have no high school, and now to de-grade Public School 
31, in that part of Greenpoint we are left without any facilities of any kind. We 
have a library on Norman avenue, but of course that is not in our district. 

Chairman Robitzek — Will you explain to me, if you can, what is the motive 
for removing this school? 

Mrs. Sullivan— When I asked Mr. Willcox, and then called his Secretary, Mr. 
Felix, on the telephone, and referred to his letter and to his statement to me in the 
Board of Education room, that the Board of Health had complained of the crowd- 
ing in Public School 31, and asked for the date of the complaint, they could not 
give it to me ; and I called twice since that occasion and asked for the date when 
the Board of Health had condemned the building or complained about the crowd- 
ing, and they could not give me the date. 

Ladies and gentlemen, I live right in this district, and I know that Public School 
31 was working under the duplicate plan just the same as this school they have 
sent these children to now. They were receiving the full benefit of the education. 
Many of the children went in at 8.30 in the morning and came out at 11, just as they 
are doing in the other school, and we have not alone civic organizations, but we have 
the support of every taxpayer ana property owner in the district, willing to keep the 
school as it was. Buy no new property. But leave it as it was, because every mother 
was perfectly satisfied with the way her child was being taught. 

Chairman Robitzek — Pardon my interruption again, but I am trying to get the 
facts, and that is what I suppose you are trying to reveal to the committee. What 
sort of a school is this? Is it an old school? 

Mrs. Sullivan — Well, Mr. Chairman, part of the school — I believe the part on Du. 
pont street — is built something around 25 years. 

Chairman Robitzek — What seems to be the defect? What has the Board of 
Health assigned as the defect or menace to the school, to the children? 

Mrs. Sullivan — IMr. Chairman, I have not been able to find out. The only thing 
was when I asked for information regarding the date of complaint from the Board 
of Health, they could not give it to me at the time, but they said they would give it 
to me later on. 

Chairman Robitzek — I understand that, but I am trying to find out if you can 
tell us in this record what is the actual condition of that school. 

Mrs. Sullivan — As far as I can learn, the school is in a splendid sanitary condition. 

Chairman Robitzek — Have you been in the school? 

Mrs. Sullivan — Yes, sir. And from building experts, ladies and gentlemen — one 
builder testified, who was not connected with the Board of Education, I want to say, 
he testified that Public School No. 31 was one of the finest buildings. Although an 
old building, the material and construction of it was far superior to many of the 
buildings that were being put up today. It was carried on in a splendid manner. It 
was up-to-date, as far as sanitary equipment and everything was concerned, to suit 
the neighborhood and to leave the children there. 

Chairman Robitzek — Is it a fire-proof building? 

Mrs. Sullivan — Yes. They had made all arrangements in the last few years that 
made it fireproof and made it sanitary. The only thing that we had to work on, and 
of course we could not get any information from the Board of Education regarding 
it, and that was that when they started to improve 126, which they Garyized, they had 
gone beyond their limit. They did not expect to improve it as much as what they did. 
Naturally, after expending the money on it, they had to call on another school to fill 
up the space that was there. 

Chairman Robitzek — Pardon me, Mrs. Sullivan. I am just trying to get this 
information. 

Mrs. Sullivan — Yes. 



164 

Chairman Robitzek — You contend that School 31 is in every way sanitary? 

Mrs. Sullivan — Yes. 

Chairman Robitzek — And that it is fireproof? 

Mrs. Sullivan — Yes. 

Chairman Robietzek — And not a menace? 

Mrs. Sullivan — Yes. 

Chairman Robitzek — And you claim that Mr. Willcox contended that it had been 
condemned by the Department of Health? 

Mrs. Sullivan — Yes. 

Chairman Robietzek — But was unable to show you the complaint? 

Mrs. Sullivan — He just mentions in his letter the Board only claims of the crowd- 
ing in it. 

Chairman Robitzek — If that is the only complaint, it is simple to relieve the 
crowding by having an annex. 

Mrs. Sullivan — That is what we asked for. 

Chairman Robitzek — 31 is entirely closed for use at the present time? No one 
is occupying it at all? 

Mrs. Sullivan — Yes. Public School 31 is being occupied below the sixth B grade. 

Chairman Robitzek — It is being occupied ? 

Mrs. Sullivan — Yes, certainly. That is the point I brought out. 

Chairman Robitzek — Then I don't see your contention. I understood you to 
say it was not being occupied because of the Board of Health complaint. 

Mrs. Sullivan — No, Mr. Chairman. If that appeared in my statement I did not 
really mean it to be that way. They had de-graded it, I said, and taken away the 
grammar grades from it. 

Chairman Robitzek — And they occupy and use it for primary grades? 

Mrs. Sullivan — It is not entirely filled. That is . 

Chairman Robitzek — It is not entirely filled? 

Mrs. Sullivan — It is not entirely filled. With the children working on the dupli- 
cate plan in Public School 31 they were receiving the same amount of hours, and 
every child, even down to the kindergarten class, was getting the required hours of 
■ion, just the same as they are in Public School 126. 

only information we had was they called on P. S. 31, but never had expected 
to do so when they Garyizcd 126. 

Perhaps some of you ladies and gentlemen have read of the case that was taken 
into the court last week, and I want to say that that lady who was taken to court 
had a certificate from her physician, which had been sworn to before a Notary Public, 
thai her child was anaemic, inclined to tuberculosis, and unfit to go that distance to 

1. which would deprive him of proper nourishment. It was ignored in the court, 
and Judge Esterbrook lined the woman $5, which she paid under protest, and we 
eel to take the matter to a higher court. (Applause.) 

I also want to tell you, ladies and gentlemen, that the same day there was another 
case of a boy right from the section who was lying in bed, he has a leaking valve of 
the heart, and his father was almost put through the Third Degree to see if they 
could not get him to commit himself and say that the child was in the street playing, 
while the man held a certificate from his physician stating that the child was in bed, 
that he had a very severe case of heart trouble, having a leaking valve, and being under 
this man's care for over a year. He had visited him on the day previous and was 
going to him that day, and even so, his certificate was not recognized in court. 

Chairman Robitzek — I just want to make the matter clear. I still have not been 
able to grasp your situation. What is your grievance here? Will you just make this 
more clear? You are going off on other cases that I don't think have any connection 
with this situation. 



165 

Mrs. Sullivan — The grievance is . 

Chairman Robitzek — What is the specific grievance you want to present? 

Mrs. Sullivan— What we do want to present to the Board of Aldermen is that 
we want them to take up the situation in Greenpoint, and give the northern district the 
benefit of a grammar school, which it has been deprived of. 

Chairman Robietzek — By having only a primary school in 31? 

Mrs. Sullivan — Yes ; by having only two primary schools m the district north of 
Greenpoint avenue; in degrading Public School 31, that leaves two schools in that 
district, which are only primary schools. 

Chairman Robitzek — I get your point now. 

Mrs. Sullivan — It means that the children must walk at the very least to teach the 
grammar school. 

I have been told that there was a law which said there must be a grammar school 
within eight or ten blocks of the child's home, or the parent could not be forced to 
send the child there. Since that law was made I believe there is an amendment to 
it, and it is on the amendment that they are working. 

That is the situation in Brooklyn, and we have been informed that you people 
in the Ridgewood district have the same problem that we have, or you will have it in 
the early fall. 

Chairman Robitzek — We will hear from the residents of Ridgewood on that. 
Just confine yourself to Greenpoint, because you have got quite a district out there. 

Mrs. Sullivan — So I will ask your co-operation and support in this matter, to help 
us to get a school which will be a grammar school. Whether it is new or old we are 
not particular. As I said before, we are not looking for luxuries; we are only just 
workaday people and we want a school that will give our children the benefit of 
education they are entitled to without endangering their health and lives. 

Chairman Robitzek — Harrison C. Glore, ex-Assemblyman and Chairman of the 
Local School Board in this district. 

Hon. Harrison C. Glore — Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen : I feel that I 
am not authorized to speak for my section, except possibly the section included within 
the line of School District No. 36. Speaking for that district, I realize that often- 
times it is more popular to condemn than to commend public officials, but in going 
over the situation in School District 36, I think I would not be fair to the school 
authorities if I did not assume the fair points, rather than the popular ones. 

In School District 36 we may be fortunate, but we are not exceptional, in having 
at this time no great grievance to voice. About ten years ago there were started and 
initiated by the Local School Board of District 36 agitations for an extension to 
Public School 73, and it has only been this year that we have received the good news 
that the Board of Education has granted that request, and Public School 73 will now 
have an extension that will include a very much needed auditorium, a swimming pool, 
a gymnasium, and additional classrooms; and I think that the parents of the pupils 
and the citizens generally are grateful indeed for all the efforts and for the accom- 
plishments of this much-needed reform. 

I think that I might properly say that the colleague of the Chairman, our Alder- 
man from this section, has been instrumental in securing this extension. 

There has also been appropriated by the Board of Education for Public School 
District No. 36 about $18,000 for some additional classrooms needed for Public School 
No. 178, and about $16,000 for additional classrooms in 137. 

So that so far as School District 36 is concerned, I feel that we are in that fortu- 
nate position to at least give some voice and an opportunity for other sections for 
needed reform in other school districts. 

My own view, Mr. Chairman, is that the most important thing connected with 
our public school system is the question of eliminating part time. I am a firm be- 
liever in the fact that every child is entitled to a seat, and is entitled to a seat for the 



166 

full-day period, and fortunately in District 36 we had not long since some part-time 
classes in that district, but fortunately again, for some months past, we have main- 
tained the record that the Board made some few months ago of eliminating all part- 
time classes, so that to-day there is no part-time class in School District 36. 

So that with that evil eliminated we are prepared to take up any advancement or 
improvement in the school system that might be inaugurated. I do not in stating 
these facts want to create the impression that we are satisfied to the extent of being 
contented, because I believe that contentment would be to stay the onward march of 
improvements in our public school system. A previous speaker has mentioned the 
question of the Brownsville high school. As early as January of this year I took the 
opportunity of delivering an address in Public School 171 upon the question of 

Chairman Robitzek — Where is that situated? 

Mr. Glore — Libertv Avenue, and I think it is, Pennsylvania. 
— upon the question of the possibilities and benefits of a high school for East New 
York and Brownsville. 

These sections lie in School Districts 39 and 40, and School Districts 39 and 40 
are the two largest school districts in the entire State, with the possible exception of 
one district in The Bronx. One of these school districts had 14 elementary schools 
with a daily average attendance of 25,000. The other district has 12 elementary 
schools with a daily average attendance of over 24,000. The statistics further show 
that of those who graduated from these two districts, the greatest proportion finished 
the courses. So that there is, I think, a need of a high school in that section. 

Chairman Robitzek — All of those that attend high school from East New York 
and Brownsville are compelled to come to the Bushwick high school, that is, this 
high school? 

Mr. Glore — No. The Chair is in error on that point. 

Chairman Robitzek — I am asking that question. 

Mr. Glore — The statistics show that there are about 5,000 graduates from the 
Brownsville district who attend the high school ; and of that number those that 
attend the Boys' High School are 580; those attending the Girls' High School, 1,267; 
Manual Training, 303; Erasmus High School, 299; Eastern District, 175; and the 
Bushwick High, 924. 

Chairman Robitzek — The reason I asked the question was I understood from 
Judge Richard's statement that all the Brownsville students came to Bushwick High 
School, and that was why I wanted to be put right on it. 

Mr. Glore — I fear the Judge is in error on that point. Of the 5,000 graduates, 
there are 924 that attend the Bushwick High School. 

Chairman Robitzek — That is about a thousand. 

Mr. Glore — Yes. I understand that the number has been a little increased, 
according to the latest report. 

Chairman Robitzek — Another question. Is this school nearer the center of 
Brownsville than any of the other high schools which you mention? 

Mr. Glore — I think it is as near as any one, but I might call the attention of the 
Chairman to the fact that the policy of the Board of Education, as I understand it, 
has been that a high school is not considered a sectional proposition. The high 
schools are considered available to the graduates of any elementary school in the entire 
city, and a graduate from any of the elementary schools can express a preference for a 
high school that he desires to attend. The result is that oftentimes an expression of 
preference is had for the Boys High or the Girls High, or in some instances, for 
Manual Training. 

I am not prepared to say that it would be a popular idea to change this rule, 
because the graduates of the elementary school have some idea of what course they 
desire to pursue. 

The vocational guidance department of the Board of Education has recently been 



167 

organized for the very purpose of attempting to assist graduates in selecting some 
course in the high schools. It happens that the graduates often have an idea that 
they want to pursue either a classical course or a vocational one, and the expression 
of preference is often had for the manual training, so that the high school problem 
in my judgment is not a sectional one, but there unquestionably is, and I think it is 
conceded by all school authorities that there is need and there is desire for a high 
school in the East New York section and in the Brownsville section. 

Chairman Robitzek — That would relieve the congestion here, would it not? 
Mr. Glore — I take it that it would. I assume that of the 5.000 graduates in those 
districts there would be a considerable portion of those who would express a prefer- 
ence for a high school in their own locality, and while it is a fact that the percentages 
of attendances in Bushwick High has increased each year and this is the fourth year 
of the Bushwick High School existence, that, if I understand the statistics from the 
Board of Education, provision has been made for the graduates of the elementary 
schools of the entire city who intend to enter the high school. 

I think that this has been brought about by the adoption of a plan which has 
been tried with marked success in School District 36. I know that in Public School 
85 of this section they have adopted what is known as the Junior High School 
classes, which takes care of the first one. or two years of the high school course. It 
might be further enlightening to the committee to have the statistics of percentage of 
those who attend the high school and finish the course. 
Chairman Robitzek — Have you got that ready to submit? 
Mr. Glore — I have them right here. There are only four of them. 
Chairman Robitzek — Well, go ahead. 

Mr. Glore — The number who attend the first year is 45 per cent., and the number 
who finish the second year is 28 per cent. ; those who finish the third year course 
17 per cent., and those who complete the fourth year course only 10 per cent. 
Chairman Robitzek — Isn't that the general average? 
Mr. Glore — That is the general average. 
Chairman Robitzek — I mean throughout the city. 

Mr. Glore — Throughout the city. So that, if provision were made for the first 
year of the high school in the elementary school, if such a thing were possible 
until the new high schools are erected, it would seem to me that close on to 50 pei 
cent, of the classes entering high school would be adequately provided for. 

Chairman Robitzek — Your plan seems to be worthy of attention and consideration, 
but the schools in this vicinity and particularly in Brownsville, have they available 
rooms for that purpose? 

Mr. Glore — I, of course, cannot speak authoritatively for those two districts, 
because' I assume I am a stranger in the school districts, but I understand that the 
continuation elementary school and the junior high school has been adopted in a num- 
ber of elementary schools in that district, so that provision has by that means 
been made for the graduates. 

On that very question, I understand that in those two districts, 39 and 40, there 
are some 20,000 part time pupils, and that in my opinion, is a need that should 
be taken care, of without delay. The figures seem almost abnormal, that there 
should be 20,000 to 22,000 part time pupils in those districts, and it may be a little 
exceptional, owing to the fact that most of the elementary schools in those two 
districts are modern schools that are adapted to the duplicate school system, and while 
some of the older schools have been in the course of change, some of the full time 
classes have been put on half time; but as far as the high school is concerned, I 
think it is the consensus of opinion that the figures and statistics demand that this 
school be had at the very earliest possible date. 
Chairman Robitzek — Mr. Edward Domschke. 



168 

Mr. Edward Domschke — Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen : My position here 
to-night is rather peculiar. 

I was directed by my organization, the Ridgewood Board of Trade, to attend and 
report back, and so I am just sitting down and listening; but from a personal stand- 
point, I heartily agree with the last speaker that your honorable body should consider 
the zone proposition, if it is practical, and to create a condition where the people 
of a district can have the benefit of the school themselves. I believe that this 
district here can fill this high school without going much outside the boundary 
line. I am stating my personal views. I do not believe any man is better qualified 
to speak for this district, and knows its wants better than your honorable colleague, 
Alderman Haubert. 

As I said before, I was delegated to come here and listen and report, but it seems 
to me that should receive your attention, and that probably the building of a high 
school in Brownsville would relieve the congestion in this district. I thank you. 

Chairman Robitzek — Mr. Charles Raskopf. 

Mr. Charles Raskopf — Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen : I came here tonight 
on behalf of the Parents Association of P. S. 85, which is located at Eldert Street and 
Evergreen Avenue. I have come here particularly tonight to speak upon the question 
of supervised play. None of the speakers have touched upon that this evening, but it 
seems to me that that is something which requires some attention. 

As I understand it, each of the classes are to have one hour's play, supervised by 
certain of the teachers. Nobody seems to understand just exactly what is meant by 
supervised play, except by taking the word supervised in its general meaning, but we 
are in this position with respect to School 85. 

We have a daily attendance of about 2400 pupils, and we would have to leave out 
something like 400 pupils every hour. That is to say, during the entire six school 
hours, four hundred of the pupils would have to be allowed out on the playground 
each and every hour for the purpose of allowing each of those children to have their 
hour's supervised play. Of course that may be quite feasible in a country district, 
where you may perhaps have an acre or two of ground surrounding the school, but 
when you take a school in a crowded district, such as we have on Eldert and Evergreen 
Avenues, it becomes apparent that it is an absolute physical impossibility to give the 
children one hour's supervised play. 

One of my colleagues gave me the dimensions of the school ground of School 85, 
and we find that we have for the girls a plot of ground 85 x 41J4 feet. Now if you 
multiply that 85 by 41 ' _. and divide that again by the number 400, you will find how 
absolutely impossible it is to give children, school children, with all the words school 
children imply, with the running, skipping and jumping at their play, what a chance 
it is for those children, 400 at any one time, to go through the motions of supervised 
play. 

The same thing applies to the boys, with the single exception that their space is 
smaller. The plot of ground upon which the boys play is 45 x 65. Divide that by the 
number of boys, 400, or 200, that have got to be allowed out at one time, and you will 
find how absolutely impossible it is for those boys to run and jump and play in that 
prescribed area. 

When you come, however, to the inclement weather, to the rainy days, the days 
when you have snow on the ground, when the day is foggy and moist, and when it is 
impossible to let the children out in the open and the boys and girls have got to play 
on the enclosed enclosure, you find even a worse condition confronts you. We have 
in Public School 85 three spaces 23 x 44 feet, and they are not clear spaces at all. We 
have got posts running right clear through the center, and when you put 200 boys in 
that space and try to let them let out their animal spirits you find how absolutely 
impossible it is to put this supervised play feature into operation ; and the same thing 



169 

nolds good of the girls. There is, however, this added feature to be taken into 
consideration : 

When you take the supervised play in the inside enclosure during inclement 
weather into consideration, there is not a single window in the place ; there is abso- 
lutely no ventilation in any of those enclosures, so that when our respected Board of 
Education sends out their instructions to the Principal and the teachers of the schools, 
that the children must undergo — I think that is the proper word, undergo — this super- 
vised play, under the conditions that we have prevailing in the public school, why I 
think it becomes an act of downright cruelty, and it seems to me that if the Board of 
Education wants the system of supervised play to be used, put in operation in public 
schools situated such as Public School 85, that they must make some provision by 
which added area can be added to the public schools as they now exist. 

There is just another thing that we want to clutch on to here tonight. It is this: 
Public School is, as I said a moment ago, in a very crowded section, yet we have 
absolutely no civic center, and it seems to me that in districts such as this, I mean 
similarly situated as 85, that some recommendation should be made by which the com- 
munity will have a community centre where we will have auditoriums, lecture rooms, 
gymnasiums, and so forth. Public School 85 has its auditorium, I think, on the fifth 
floor. The Parents Association hold their meetings in that auditorium, and by the 
time we stout fellows get up on the fifth floor we know we have been climbing, and 
there are some of them who are a little bit heavier than I am. I can imagine how 
they feel. 

There is just another thing that it seems to me should be taken up by this Board, 
and it is this : We have quite a number of Parents Associations in the different 
Boroughs in the City of New York. I do not believe that the other Parents Associa- 
tions are more fortunate than we are. We hold our meetings in the auditorium, as 
I said, of Public School 85, and we have got to pay for the use of that auditorium. 
I think we pay from $3.50 to $5.00 for a session. 

Chairman Robitzek— $3.50 to $5.00? 

Mr. Raskopf — $3.50 to $5.00 a session. I think it depends on the time of year 
in which those meetings are held. 

I see absolutely no reason why the Parents Associations should not have the use 
of those rooms for nothing. We pay our taxes, and they have been coming up 
pretty steadily for the last five or ten years. Our money goes to the support of those 
schools, and I do not see any reason why we should not have the use of those rooms 
without extra charge for them. We have got a pretty hard time as it is to get along 
on the money that we can collect, and I see no reason why we should give a part 
of that money to the City of New York. We already pay for the use of those 
auditoriums in our tax bills. 

I thank you. (Applause.) 

Chairman Robitze*k — Mr. William Brennan. 

Mr. William Brennan — Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen : I will be exceedingly 
brief, but whatever I have to say I do not think I should say it until I express the 
opinion that I think you all entertain, that this system of meeting our Aldermanic 
representatives face to face is the most representative thing that has ever been brought 
out in the City of y New York. (Applause.) And I am quite sure that the gentlemen 
from the Aldermanic body who are here to-night will see to it that this movement 
gathers an impetus by rendering recommendations as to the various matters that are 
suggested to them, and those recommendations will be based on good faith and on 
the merits and not by any personal popularity or public clamoring that may be behind 
them. 

There have been a number of splendid addresses here to-night. They have all 
been interesting, and I think that you and I were glad to hear them all, but I am 
going to take as my text to-night a rather free quotation from the letter which Mrs. 



170 

Sullivan read from Mr. Chairman Willcox, and it was substantially to the effect that 
"The big ones can walk, and the little ones cannot." 

Wherever we have a full accommodation in our schools for the little ones, then 
I care not how much generosity is bestowed upon the old ones ; but if it is a ques- 
tion of depriving the little ones of something in order to give an advanced education 
to the older ones, I say: Stop with the older ones and be just with the little ones 
before you are generous to the old ones. The average boy or girl who goes to a 
high school is 14. That boy or girl can afford to walk. One mile or two miles means 
nothing to them. I readily admit that if everything was in an ideal condition, it might 
perhaps be better not to oblige them to walk that distance, although even in that 
respect many people may disagree with us. 

Most of the children in East Manhattan who go to high schools have to ride, 
so ft is not an unusual condition up here. It is not a penalty in extreme that the 
boys and girls in this section are paying, and furthermore, in the City of New York, 
notwithstanding all the riding that has to be indulged in, the average high school 
pupil in this great city lives nearer to his high school than in any other city in the 
Union, so that we are met face to face with this proposition : If we are going to 
have a high school solely from the standpoint of saving children from the necessity 
of riding to a school, we are asking for favoritism, we are asking for a coddling 
sentiment which does not obtain in any other city in the Union ; and I seriously 
question as to whether or not you parents, if you are face to face with this proposi- 
tion, to not put up a high school in a certain spot near your own children, whether it 
is wise to have a high school so near that the boys and girls practically have no exer- 
cise and slide into the school as they will slide into a candy store. 

Now, we all realize that the City of New York is face to face with a very grave 
financial problem. It is a very serious question as to whether or not the Department 
of Education has enough money to spread around the city. We know that the little 
ones are absolutely entitled to education. That is their right, and that is your right, 
as fathers and mothers of those little ones, but this advanced education is another 
matter. It is almost a matter of kindness, when it comes to the State or City of New 
York to bestow an advanced education. There is nobody interested in education who 
does not admit that the little one has an absolute right to education, and yet you 
will find many, many students of educational matters who seriously question as to 
whether the State should give high school, training school, and similar advance school 
education. 

However, I will pass from that. The point I want to bring you back to is this : 
That if you have a part time evil in the City of New York, I don't care whether it is 
in East New York or Brownsville, or the Bronx, or wherever it is, that part time evil 
is an evil, and a crime against the little ones ; and that first should be solved before 
anybody should stand up and say : give us a high school. 

Now, it is a question of money. Supposing any one of you parents had seven 
children, and you were told that the two oldest could go to a high school, but the other 
five would have to stay away; or on the other hand, the five could go to a smaller 
school, an elementary school, provided the two stayed home. What would you do? 
Why, your own sense of love for your children would tell you you would rather have 
the five in school rather than the two. 

That is the situation that the City of New York is face to face with on the 
question of high school education as against elementary education. Now, these people 
who run the Board of Education — and if I speak in praise of them at all, I hold no 
brief for them, or for the City of New York; there are many things that the city 
administration does that I have no sympathy with, and there are many things that 
the present Department of Education does for which I have no sympathy, but I do not 
believe in criticizing any department or any system, or any administration on captious 
reasons, on foolish reasons, on trumped up reasons; neither do I think we should 



171 

interfere with any great department, such as the Department of Education is, on 
matters which are essentially within their province. I recognize that such a meeting 
as this should recommend, but we should not press those recommendations too far, 
when, perhaps, the departments are in the possession of more facts and more figures 
and more details than we have. 

However, we come down to this proposition : That the Department of Educa- 
tion is thoroughly familiar with what I call the per capita cost of education. They 
take the great bill that the city of New York has to pay for elementary education, 
and they divide that big bill by the number of children who are being educated ; and 
then they take the high school bill and they come to this conclusion, that it costs every 
year $108 to educate a high school class, and it only costs $40 to educate a child in 
the elementary school ; or in other words, every time that there are two boys or two 
girls in your high school enough money is being spent on them as would educate five 
boys or five girls in the elementary department. 

So that we are face to face with this proposition : that even if it was a question 
of policy, even if the same result could be gotten for the children in the high school 
as for the children in the elementary school ior the same amount of money, even 
then the elementary school should receive first call, but the facts are that the ele- 
mentary children cost you less. Then, why, in the name of common sense shouldn't 
you agitate first for the absolute solution of the part time evil before any question 
of advanced education should be raised. It is simply a question of dollars and cents 
really, of dollars and cents. 

For seven years I was Chairman of Local School Board 35. For seven years 
I fought the question of part time evil down in our district, and I have a perfect 
abhorrence to any proposition which involves any amount of change which does not 
protect the little ones. It is all very well to talk of these big, sturdy boys and girls. 
They have had their chance, and if they want education they can always get it, but 
the little ones are more dependent on us than the boy and girl of 14; and therefore, 
Mr. Chairman, if there is to be $700,000 to distribute on behalf of the Department 
of Education, I am quite sure I speak in the name of 20,000 little boys and girls who 
are on part time and ask that that money first be spent for them before the luxury 
of advanced education is given to those who are older. (Applause.) 

Chairman Robitzek: Mr. Nathan. 

Mr. Nathan — Mr. Chairman, I have a letter here from the President of the 28th 
Ward Taxpayers' Association who is unable to be here and I would like to read it: 

" Brooklyn, May 16, 1917. 
" To the Committee on General Welfare of the Board of Education. 

I regret very much that I will be unable to be present at the hearing you have 
so kindly granted to the residents of the Buckwick-Ridgewood section relative to 
better educational facilities in Greater New York. Briefly I desire to give my views. 

What we need today in our elementary and high schools and colleges is more 
scientific and practical education rather than literary and culturist education. Some 
of our high schools and colleges in other States are showing good common sense 
in letting the students engage in useful occupations, and crediting them with their 
work the same as though they had remained at their studies. If we could adopt the 
same principle, where feasible, it would mean much more for more scientific and prac- 
tical education for our young people. While thousands have wasted valuable time 
on ornamental education, many who have attended Pratts, Cooper Institute and other 
similar institutions, with keener foresight and greater desire to be useful members 
of society, have educated themselves in chemical, agricultural, vocational and along 
other practical lines. These young people, especially at the present time, are real 
heroes, and are valuable assets to our country in the present crisis. It is the practical 
student, or educator, who comes to the rescue when anything is wanted. 



172 

Many people believe that Germany has the best trained body of scientific men 
in the world. It is this rather than the military superiority which has enabled her 
up to the present time up against great odds to put up such a wonderful fight. Her 
submarines have been the wonder of the world and have been a great factor in the 
world's greatest war. We depend upon Germany for potash, dyes, and many scientific 
instruments. 

Every boy or girl who attends high school should have the opportunity for a 
complete practical education which will give them a better chance in the world to 
tarn a good living and be a help to our country. More attention should be given to 
manual training, domestic science. Also a number of teachers of agriculture should 
be employed and sent, as occasion requires, to the different schools in order that 
pupils may be taught how to cultivate the soil and raise vegetables. 

( )ur schools should be free from politics. I favor at this time a high school in 
the Brownsville section, as it would help to relieve congestion in the Bushwick H.gh 
School, and enable many of those living in close proximity to our own school an 
opportunity to attend the Bushwick High School. We put up a good fight to secure 
the Bushwick High School, and it is not fair that many of our boys and girls should 
In- compelled to attend other high schools in remote sections of our city. 

I know that I voice the sentiments of the residents of our section when I state 
that we all appreciate your grea.t kindness in giving us an opportunity to voice 
our views. Respectfully, 

JARED J. CHAMBERS, President 28th Ward Protective Association." 

i hairman Robitzek — Samuel H. Cragg, Chairman Local School Board, District 
No. 32. 

Mr. Samuel H. Cragg— Mr. Chairman, I had begun to think that perhaps you 
did not want to hear me, because I was the first one to enter the room, and I am 
sorry indeed that 1 have been called so late, and I fear that I will not be able to 
say all that I wanted to say, because the hour is getting late, and I do not. want tni 
weary my hearers. 

Wh.it I want to speak about particularly to-night is this: I want to speak on, 
speech improvement in our schools. I have read in the public press that the! 
Brooklyn Civic Club have brought this matter to your attention and in that tjheyl 
have said that there were 160 schools in this Borough containing 4863 children with 
speech defects. 

Chairman Robitzek — Mr. Cragg, those facts were presented to us at a previous 
meeting in the Borough of Brooklyn, those suggestions. 

Mr. Cragg — Now then what I want to present to you is this: 

Chairman Robitzek — We have the record. 

Mr. Cragg — I beg pardon? 

Chairman Robitzek — The stenograhpic record will bear me out in that regard. 

Mr. Cragg — Yes, all right. 

In public school 144. which is in my district and which I have the honor tot 
represent, we have examined 2137 children in that school, and we find that we have 
38 stammerers, 33 with perpetually hoarse voices; we have 337 lispers, and 27 with 
other defects, making a total of 435. 

Now, New York City proper, the Borough of Manhattan, has six teachers that 
have been deputed to teach speech improvement in the schools in that Borough, 
but we have no teachers in this Borough that are selected for that very purpose; and 
what I want to bring to your attention, gentlemen, is that Brooklyn needs this and 
ought to have it. 

There was, I understand, $20,000 laid aside by the Board of Estimate and Ap- 
portionment for this very purpose, which was to be devoted to Brooklyn^ but I 
understand that a lady over there, who has more to do with the public schools 



173 

than most men have, and that is Mrs. Ford, she saw to it that this amount was cut 
out. Now, Brooklyn ought to have its fair share of this distribution of money for 
this purpose. 

I remember that we had in our district a very talented gentleman who was the 
District Superintendent. I refer to Doctor Stewart, Seth T. Stewart, and he used 
to tell me, "Mr. Cragg, you know in our public schools here in our district we have 
only the lowest mud-gutter English." That is the way that he spoke of the 
English that we have. Now, I delight of summer evenings to get the children 
in our neighborhood to come up to my stoop, and I have got — shall I say the mis- 
fortune? At any rate, I will say that I live in a Jewish district, and I delight to 
have those children come on to my stoop, and I endeavor in my small way to teach 
them how to speak English, and I find there that among my neighbors — I will 
mention one case of a young lady who is 24 years of age, of Public School 122, and 
whenever she says "disgusting," she says "disgustink," and we have a man down 
in our neighborhood who has children that go to the public school, and I am sure that if 
he speaks in his own family his children will never be benefited. There is a man 
who ran for Congress in our district, and in a meeting he said, " We have dis- 
gusted that question often enough." How can children learn to speak English when 
they hear it spoken like that? He is a father, and what chance will his children have 
in improving their speech? 

Alderman Haubert — Where do you live? 

Mr. Cragg — I live down in Willoughby Avenue. 

Alderman Haubert — I am just trying to locate the Congressman. 

Mr. Cragg — Happily, he never became a Congressman. What I am telling 
is an absolute fact. 

In one of our public schools down there, in a big school, the teacher was giving 
some examples to teach the Jewish students how to speak. He said to them, 
"You use this word and give me a sentence with this word in it. He came to onej 
young man and he said to him to use the word "theft" in a short sentence, &nd he 
gave the sentence, "We had once for a President Mr. Teft." I am sure if any 
children are in the family of that young man that the teacher who will have them 
in charge will have a very hard job teaching them English, and so, in view of the 
fact that we want our children to speak good English, we must have good teachers. 

In Public School 144 we have a lady there who is teaching the children the best 
she knows how. Without any special right from the Board of Education to do so 
even, she is teaching the normal children how to enunciate and to speak English 
as it ought to be spoken, and I am sure if you gentlemen have very much experience 
and I have no doubt that you have, if you get around among the children we have 
now around us in our days and hear the way they murder the English, it is about 
time tha't some money was appropriated by the Board of Education, or by the Board 
of Estimate to teach our children how to speak the English, which they have got 
to make their living with. 

Chairman Robitzek — Is there any one else who desires to be heard before this 
meeting is brought to a close? 

Mrs. Sullivan — May I say just one word before you close, with reference to 
the gentleman ,who spoke who said he was connected with School 36. The gentle- 
man, I believe, misunderstood me when I spoke regarding School 31. It is not 
a grammer school at the present time, and we are fighting for the grammer course 
in the elementary school. We are not looking for a high school in Greenpoint. 
We are simply looking for the children to get the finished course in the elementary 
school, and for that purpose many of the children go no further than that, and 
that is why I wanted to make it clear to the gentleman. 

We don't wish to talk about children riding or walking, because we want to send 
them to high school. We simply want them to finish the elementary school, because 
many of them want to go no further. 



174 

Chairman Robitzek — I don't think I misunderstood you. The speaker may have. 
I do not think he did, but I did not misunderstand you in that regard. I did at the 
outset, but afterwards I understood it. 

Mr. Glore — I understand the charge against me is withdrawn? 

Chairman Robitzek — It was not a very serious charge, I take it, either. 

Are there any other speakers that want to be heard? 

Mr. Voormer — Mr. Chairman. 

Chairman Robitzek — Whom do you represent? 

Mr. Voormer — Public School 85. The Honorable Mr. Brennan mentioned the 
fact that he would like to see the appropriation should be much more so for the 
elementary schools than for the older boys. How does that argument overcome the 
law whereby boys must go to school and finish their fifteenth year? If the majority 
of boys after they graduate are fourteen, they must go to school and finish the fifteenth 
year, up to the sixteenth year. We certainly must have high schools (applause). 

Mr. Kolsome — Am I to understand that Public School 144, from the gentleman 
who represents that school, that the teachers are not competent to teach? 

Mr. Cragg — I never made any such assertion. 

Mr Nathan — I would like to be enlightened. I understood the gentleman here 
to say that from that same section. I do not know whether I am right or not in 
what I want to ask. Did I understand you to say that the teachers do not teach the 
proper English in the school in the section you come from? 

Mr. Cragg — I never said any such thing. 

Chairman Robitzek — You misunderstood Mr. Cragg. Mr. Cragg made no such 
statement. I believe I get Mr. Cragg's point of view. 

Mr. Nathan— I would like to get it again. 

Chairman Robitzek — He believes there ought to be special teachers who will 
take up the correction of English in this borough. 

Mr. Cragg — That is just exactly it. 

Chairman Robitzek — And prevent stammering or other defects. 

Mr. Cragg — There is no reflection upon teachers in our school, although I am 
sorry to say that we have teachers in District 32 who themselves do not know how to 
speak English (applause). 

Chairman Robitzek — That is as I understood it. 

Mr. Nathan — That is what I wanted to get at. I believe that. That I believe. 

Chairman Robitzek— You are making no direct charge against any particular 
school. It is generally throughout the Borough of Brooklyn? 

Mr. Cragg — Absolutely not, but it is generally throughout the borough, but I 
can only speak of my own knowledge from my own district. 

Alderman Collins — That is an absolute fact. 

Chairman Robitzek — Any further questions? 

(No response.) 

Chairman Robitzek— If not, the hearing will be adjourned and the next hearing 
of this committee will be held at Wadleigh High School, between 115th Street and 
114th Struct, Manhattan Borough, City of New York, next Thursday night at 8 o'clock, 
May 24th, 1917. 

MINUTES OF HEARING BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON GENERAL WEL- 
FARE OF THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN ON THE FOLLOWING MATTER: 
"No. 1242 — Request of the conference of organized labor to the Board to 
hold hearings and to invite the Board of Education and city officials to answer 
why the demands for better educational facilities have not been requested." 
Wadleigh High School, Manhattan, May 24, 1917, at 8.00 P. M. 
p resen t— Alderman Robitzek, Chairman; Collins, Ferguson, Cassidy, Friedlander. 
The Chairman — This is a continuation of the public hearings that have been 
held throughout the City of New York. This meeting has been designated for 



175 

Harlem at the suggestion of the Harlem local newspapers. The object of these 
meetings is for the purpose of obtaining information in regard to educational matters 
in the City of New York. 

A petition was submitted to the Board some months ago by the conference of 
organized labor. The matter was referred to the Committee on General Welfare. 
They are now holding and conducting these hearings for the purpose of finding 
out what suggestions, if any, the people of the City of New York have in regard 
to the schools of the City of New York. We have held meetings all over the city 
and the next meeting, which will be the last meeting, will be held in Public School 
132 on Wadsworth Avenue and 182nd Street, which will be the last meeting of 
the series of some twenty that have been held throughout the city. This is the 
next to the last meeting. 

All those desiring to speak will be heard. We are making a complete record 
of all the suggestions that have been presented to us and will embrace it in a report 
as soon as we have completed our public hearings. 

We will hear from the Reverend Doctor John Emerson Zeiter. 

Alderman Ferguson suggests that I call to your attention one feature that 
seems to predominate upon all of those that attend these hearings. We are not in- 
vestigating the Gary system or any such plan under a similar or different name. 
As an incident, the Gary system has come up in the different discussions of several 
of the speakers, but it is merely as an incident that we are obtaining information 
in regard to the Gary system. 

Proceed, Doctor. 

Reverend John E. Zeiter — Mr. Chairman, I represent myself tonight in one way, 
but more largely I represent, with some members of a committee who are here, 
the parents of Public School 37 in the Bronx, and our coming here tonight is 
particularly for the purpose of placing before your committee our word of protest 
against a suggested induction in the school that we are particularly interested in, 
No. 37 in the Bronx, of the so-called Gary Duplicate System. We are somewhat 
familiar with this system. We have studied it from the time of its inception, that 
is, so far as it has had much of a public relationship in this country of ours, 
and we have from time to time gathered reports of the way in which it works and 
the amount of satisfaction it gives, or the lack of satisfaction, and somehow or 
other, we have come to believe through our indirect association with it that we are 
more or less, some might think less, w.e think fairly competent to give an opinion 
of the subject and we are here for that particular purpose. 

The parents of Public School 37, that is the parents who have children in that 
school, register about 1400 families, and we have here protests from over 1200 of 
those families against the proposed induction of the Gary system into that school. 

Alderman Ferguson — Doctor, will you just tell us where that school is? 

Doctor Zeiter — That school is situated between Willis and Brook Avenue in 
145th Street, Bronx. 

Alderman Ferguson — How far away from that school is Public 45, which is the 
one that has the Gary System? 

Doctor Zeiter — Is that at Brown Place and 136th Street? 

Alderman Ferguson — Yes. 

Doctor Zeiter — That is a distance of 10 blocks? 

Alderman Ferguson — Excuse me for interrupting you. 

Doctor Zeiter — That is all right. 

Alderman Ferguson — Thank you. 

Doctor Zeiter — Yes, that is a distance of about 10 blocks. Now, these parents 
who have signed these petitions in protest have studied the question. Approximately 
a month ago a meeting was held in the auditorium of the school, to which meeting 



176 

Doctor Taylor and Mr. McCarthy were invited to come and present the values, 
as they understood them, as they relate to the Gary system. At that meeting there 
were some six or seven hundred of the parents of the scholars in that school, and 
they listened as I understand, intelligently to all that these gentlemen had to say 
in favor of the suggested induction of that system and registered a very strong 
protest at the time, and were thoroughly competent to register a protest in writing 
in the way that they have later on. 

We believe that this committee here, your committee, has tremendous power to do 
the things that ought to be done that are right in the City in the way of advising, and 
we have learned in the course of our lives that wise advisers usually are as good as 
those who have the controlling influence; and we have a pretty strong notion that 
if we can get our case before you the same as many other schools, or parents of 
other schools desire to get their cases before the proper authority, that our case 
will be in absolutely good hands. 

We have been interested to note the folk who are especially trying to drive 
through this business here in New York City. Conscientious people, undoubtedly. 
Wise people, some of them, but we have noticed with great interest that a large num- 
ber of them, who are the leaders amongst these folk, who are so anxious to place 
this system upon the schools of our city, are folks who are not definitely interested 
in the public school system by having their own children or having any children of 
their own to put in the public schools, or if the}' have them, many of them instead 
of putting them in the public schools have them in other places. For instance, one 
"i tin- district superintendents, who 1 understand spoke before that meeting I referred 
to before, admitted while serving the Gary system his own child was not in the 
public school system but in another type of school away off somewhere else; and we 
have a sort of a notion that we parents are pretty nearly as competent to judge as to 
the method of the type of education to which our children should be subjected as any 
class "i people, even though they be educators, even they be the so-called Board of 
Education. < Applause.) 

Now, many of the folks who have signed this petition, gentlemen, are educators 
themselves. There are some clergymen's names here. We clergymen do not get 
credit for being anything, but we have something to do with matters of education. 
There are lawyers' names on those petitions. There are physicians and surgeons, 
and there arc men in every walk of life. There are men in every walk of life that 
have to do with the things that particularly appeal to the welfare of the people, and 
we think we are competent to judge somewhat on this matter. I would suggest that 
one "t our principal objections is found in this, to the induction of this system in our 
schools, is found in this : That the system is altogether too radical. In the next 
place, it does away with the possibility of giving a sufficient amount of time to the 
fundamentals in educational procedure. The gentlemen to whom I referred before, 
who are supposedly best qualified to tell about the Gary system or the duplicate 
system, have said or admitted, as I understand it, that only about half of the time, 
or even a little less than half of the time that under the present system is devoted to 
the teaching, the instruction, in regard to fundamentals of the educational system, 
will be permitted for that sort of thing under the Gary system; and that the rest of 
the time will be given up more or less to teaching children how to play, or else to 
give them some sort of vocational instruction, or else such time as is taken up in 
traveling from one classroom to another, or taken up in spending time down in the 
auditorium waiting for the next call to be made upon them. 

Gentlemen. I submit to you that a child in the elementary school is not competent 
from the development of intellect or competent from the experience in life, or com- 
petent from the amount of necessary knowledge, fundamental knowledge, that they 
have accumulated, to be set to the task of undertaking vocational work, (applause), 
such as being taught carpentry, or printing, or clerking, or half a dozen of these 



177 

other things that are undertaken ; but, gentlemen, if you are going to insist, or if the 
Board of Education is going to insist that children must undertake some sort of 
vocational work, then I submit to you that we parents have got a right to say what 
sort of vocational instruction they should have. (Applause.) Now, my father was 
a stone cutter and I am proud of the fact, and he was proud of the fact, and he was 
a mighty good one, too, and he would have been glad if I had become a stone cutter, 
and I suppose the only reason I didn't become a stone cutter was because I didn't 
have brains enough, and so they made a preacher out of me. (Applause.) But if 
we are going to have this thing, why not teach the boys theology, why not teach them 
law, why not teach them medicine, why not teach them surgery? I am better able to 
know what my boy is likely to make, or what possibilities he has within him than 
even the' teachers that are closest to him. No one has so much interest as I have, 
and no one studies him so closely as his mother and I, and he will be more confi- 
dential in letting us know his natural inclinations ; and if we must give them some 
sort of vocational work, if we must induct that into the early years, let us also give 
the professional schemes a chance along with them, and let us help to adjust the 
business ; and I want to say that very emphatically, if we are going to have this 
system, then I am going to insist that my boy be taught law, medicine and theology 
along with the other different things, because I don't want him to be held down to 
a few things a number of men sitting down in the Board of Education say he ought 
to have coddled into him, whether I want it or whether I do not. 

I am not inclined to say there is no good in the Gary system or in the duplicate 
system. There is good in every sincere thing, undoubtedly, and the Gary system may 
be a splendid thing to work in some small town or some small place, but, gentlemen, 
it is silly to talk about a thing being successful in some small place and because a 
thing is successful in Gary, New York City ought to have it. (Applause.) The com- 
parison is absolutely ridiculous. We are still willing to admit that there may be some 
good things about it, but they have not been sufficiently proven out. I have been 
informed on good authority that we have here in the city about ten schools that have 
a Gary system, or a good part of it, as a part of their curriculum, in my judgment 
and in the judgment of our committee, the thing has not been tested or tried suffi- 
ciently to know whether there is enough good in it to make it worthy to be continued 
or to be extended, and naturally until that is absolutely proven it is folly to go on 
with the system so far as putting it in our schools. 

I have heard it said that the idea of the induction of the Gary system is for the 
purpose of economy, but I insist to you, gentlemen, that the question of economy ought 
never to be taken into consideration in regard to the public school system. If we 
must have economy in New York City, even I, as an ignorant preacher, can tell you 
where you can get it better and do it more fairly than in the public school system. 
(Applause.) But after all, I submit that the folk who talk about economy in the Gary 
system are shouting down an empty tunnel. I submit they are talking up into the air. 
I submit they are not familiar with the figures, for if some of the information that 
has come to me right here in regard to its introduction in various schools in New 
York City be correct, it has been more expensive and far and away from the idea of 
economy than some of these folks seem to be willing to have us believe. 

Now, I call your attention to this fact, and then I am through, that folk where the 
system has been used for a little while in the city schools are not satisfied with it. 
In the first place, the teachers in the schools where the Gary system is used are dis- 
satisfied with the work that is done and with the conditions to which they are sub- 
jected. Now, it is allright to sacrifice the teachers and say of course the teachers 
are dissatisfied because they have to work too hard under it, but gentlemen, I say to 
you the rank and file of the teachers in this city are good, hard working, conscientious 
people, who give good service, and the money they receive is very little, and they 
give more service than they are receiving in the shape of wages or return of salary, 
except those at the top ; they get enough or more than paid for their work. 



178 

In regard to teachers, and I have talked with a considerable number of them, one 
thing is this : that they feel disheartened with the Gary system or duplicate system, 
because they are conscious that they are not giving to the children that wealth of 
information, that wealth of instruction and that wealth of culture and that wealth of 
advancement that the children are entitled to ; and even after they have done their 
level best they cannot do for the children what the children are deserving to have done 
for them, and the teachers who are in the Gary system, so far as I have conversed 
with them, are disheartened and are becoming more and more so, and would gladly 
return to the old system or some system that approximates the old system ; and then, 
gentlemen, right in line with that is this thing that has to do with the dissatisfied 
people: so far as I have been able to discover, the great majority of parents that 
have children in the schools where the Gary system is in vogue are dissatisfied. 

You asked me in regard to Public School 45, at Brown Place and 145th Street. 

Alderman Ferguson — That is the nearest Garyized school in the system? 

Doctor Zeiter — That is nearest. 

Alderman Ferguson — They have the most Garyized school in the city. 

Doctor Zeiter — I am glad to know that is true. I will tell you, a large number 
of my parishioners live in the territory. A large number of them send their children 
to that school. I have not conversed with all the parents whose children go to that 
school who are my parishioners, but a very large number of them I have conversed 
with, or they have come to me directly in regard to the thing, and without an excep- 
tion, without an exception they are opposed to its continuance, and they hail with 
delight its removal from that school. I have heard from other schools where the Gary 
system is in vogue to a greater or less extent, the parent in relation to these schools, 
and in every case the report that comes to me is the same : the parents are dissatisfied 
and they do not feel the children are getting along in the way that they ought to, and I 
hope and sincerely trust that you gentlemen will see your way clear to save the city 
and the schools from any more of this folly until at least the thing has been properly 
tested out in the schools where they have it. (Applause.) 

Alderman Ferguson — How many names are represented in your petition? 

Doctor Zeiter — There are approximately 1,200 names. Then that probably rep- 
resents 2,000 names, that is, it represents 2,000 of the fathers and mothers with approx- 
imately 2,600 entire. The reason we have not more is that those petitions were handed 
around inside of 36 hours and some did not have a chance to sign, that is, they 
were called upon and were not at home at the time the petition was presented; and 
of the people who have been visited, in all the homes, there have been very few 
people, considerably less than 5 per cent, who refused to sign this petition against 
the induction of the system into the school 37. 

The Chairman — We will file the petition. 

Chairman Robitzek — Mr. Abraham Jordan. Do you represent any association? 

Mr. Abraham Jordan — As I understand, this meeting is a meeting to find, probably, 
the defects and faults the residents and taxpayers of the city at the present find 
with the educational system of New York, so probably at the Fall campaign it might 
be made an issue and things might be mentioned. That is as I conceive the idea. 

Chairman Robitzek — You do not get the idea properly, Mr. Jordan. The idea is 
to ascertain what is the present condition of the public schools to the city of New 
York in order that suggestions and recommendations might be made by this committee 
to the Board of Aldermen. 

Mr. Jordan — I may state that I and the constituents that I represent consider the 
educational department of the city of New York the most wasteful, the most extrava- 
gant and the most incompetent department of any of the departments of any of the 
Greater City, and when I make a statement of that kind I would like to substantiate 
it with some probable facts known to us. 



179 

I believe that the Legislature which has just adjourned, if it had done nothing 
but legislate the present Board of Education out of existence and created a Board 
of Education of Seven, it should go down in the history of the city of New York as the 
best Legislature within the knowledge of man. Our educational system, as to its 
extravagance, I may only state to you a few things. 

As I have from pretty good authority, the Board of Education spent $142,000 
last year for water coolers. I still fail to find in the Hall of Fame the artists who 
have gained mortality, and who have graduated from our public schools. A waste 
of that kind could be much better utilized, for example, to look out for the health 
of the children in the public schools. 

In Public School S, which is in my bailiwick, that is 145th Street, between 140th 
and 150th Street, around 8th Avenue, the Parents Association has been panhandling 
around to get a dental parlor or a dental office in the school so that the children's 
teeth could be looked after, and $500 were demanded to create such a dental office, 
and the Board of Health was to furnish a dentist free of charge to the school; and, 
gentlemen, the Board of Education could not find $500, and they refused. The 
gentleman spoke about the Gary system before. There are 3,000 children going in 
that school, which would have meant practically 15 cents for the children to bring 
$500, and the parents did not care enough, when they had been taken care of seven 
years, from the A, B, C to get to the graduating class, to spend 15 cents, and the 
Board of Education did not have money enough. 

I went to school about just a few weeks ago, I guess, but when I went to school 
they had a departmental system too, but today in our school system we have got the 
old story of Mohammed and the Mountain, but the only trouble is that where Moham- 
med went to the mountain, here in this case the mountain comes to Mohammed. 
When I went to school we had the departmental system, but children stayed in the 
class and the teacher came to the children. Here in this case the mountain of a 
class walks up from one class to another, and so Mr. Mohammed sits there on a 
chair in the form of a teacher. A more ridiculous thing I never heard of in my 
life. (Applause.) 

Gentlemen, that happens seven times each day, 40 children or 50 children in a 
class, slamming their desks together and taking their books out of the room and 
going in another room, like boys and girls do — I know all about it, because I was a 
boy only a couple of days ago — then when they are sitting down they are all excited 
and it takes 10 minutes or 15 minutes to get them in shape for any lesson, and 13 
minutes afterwards the same old story occurs again, because Mr. Mohammed is too 
lazy to move. 

That is one of the great departmental system defects and the laughing stock of 
the community. The curriculum of every school in the city is different, and the 
excuse that by telling us, " Why, -you have got a different population, have got all 
different nationalities, and you have to use a different system to make a good American 
citizen out of it." Well, I cannot see it. There is only one way to make a good 
American man or woman and that is by giving them a good moral, a good physical 
and a good educational training. One system will answer very well for all. I will 
give you an example: A friend of mine moved over from New York to Brooklyn. 
They had a child,' a girl, went to the school at 106th Street and Lexington Avenue, 
and I might say the Principal of that school takes her vocation as a profession, and 
that is an ideal feature, and when they moved to Brooklyn the girl got a notice to 
go with that she was in such and such a grammar class. The Principal of the 
Brooklyn school said the schools in Manhattan are not as good as Brooklyn schools. 
We have got to shove you one class back. And he did, and I had to use some 
political influence over there to get this girl to eventually occupy the same class as 
she occupied in New York. 



180 

They lived a year in Brooklyn and moved to New York, and lo and behold, 
when they came back to New York the Principal of that school told the girl that 
the schools in Brooklyn were not as good and she had to go back another class, 
and if they had kept on moving the poor girl at the graduation class would have 
been in the A, B, C class. 

I believe and my friends believe in a uniform curriculum for all schools so that 
when a child is moving, the parents, from one school to another, they are not handi- 
capped and their ambition killed by being placed in a lower class. 

If I may say something more in reference to our teachers, I do not care who I 
hurt and I do not care who I praise, I believe among all the employes in the city of 
New York that the ordinary teacher is the most overpaid and the most underworked 
official in the city of New York. (Applause). They get 12 months' pay for 9 months' 
work. I am telling you things wrong. They do not work 9 months. They only 
work 5 days in the week, and only work 5 hours in the day, and they have got so 
that they have started a labor organization or protective association and ceased to 
be a profession and placed themselves in the livery of trade unions by putting them- 
selves in the position against the city of New York of demanding the most pay for 
a week's work. These are the men and women that are supposed to educate morally, 
mentally and physically the coming citizens of this great glorious country of ours. 
They get three months' vacation during the year, while in every other department 
of the City of New York they get from two to four weeks at the most. 

We insist that instead of paying extra teachers extra prices for vacation schools 
in the summer and so forth, that the teacher ought to work the same as any other 
employe of the city of New York and ought to teach in the vacation schools and 
otherwise free of charge. 

Alderman Collins — Many a teacher has to prepare a whole lot of his work at night. 

Mr. Jordan — The trouble is they don't do it. 

Aldermen Collins — And if you had as much experience as a teacher in the public 
schools as I have had, I would say they are one of the hardest worked people in the 
world (applause). I merely say this to you because I have yet to hear from anybody 
but yourself a criticism of the hard working teachers in this city (applause). 

Mr. Jordan — I am not criticizing the hard working class. I am criticizing the 
easy working ones, and they are the majority. 

Chairman Robitzek — Alderman Collins is perfectly right. You are the first one 
that has come forth in any way criticizing the teachers. The criticism has been in the 
past against the system that has been iri vogue, but never against the teachers. They 
have all commended the teachers for splendid work, handicapped as they are in most 
cases. 

Mr. Jordan — Gentlemen, I have a boy going to school that graduated and is 
going to high school now. 

A Voice — He has a right to express his opinion. 

Alderman Ritzek — That is what we are here for. 

Mr. Jordan — When I asked him what was the capitol of the United States he 
told me Washington, and when I asked him to tell me where it was he said in the 
State of Washington. When I started an examination in geography he didn't know 
the capitol of four States nor the principal cities, and he was graduated. 

Chairman Robitzek — Your time is up. 

Mr. Jordan — I will say in reference to congestion, I won't speak any further in 
favor nor against the Gary system. When the Gary system was started in New York 
it never had a fair show. It was brought here to prevent half time schools. That 
is what it was brought here for, to prevent children from only getting half time of 
schooling, and that has been opposed by teachers who fear more work, and by parents 
who don't know their heails from a hole in the ground, and by a lot of others, due 



181 

to an antagonism that has neither reason nor cause. I believe in giving everything 
a fair show. I believe in having it tried out, but there is another thing which the 
Board of Aldermen can help and that is this, to do away with a good deal of con- 
gestion, and that is this, you find in the City of New York the schools are only half 
filled with scholars on account of the change of population. 

Where it was formerly the habitat of genus homo, now these sections are 
builders' offices and there are no families living there, consequently the schools are 
only half filled, while in other sections the population has increased and they are 
overcrowded. 

I ask the Board of Aldermen to sell that property, so they can build schools 
where the are overcrowded, and I would also like to enforce it most forcibly on your 
mind 

Mr. Bernard Hahn — Mr. Chairman and Getlemen, I will require but a few minutes 
of the time this evening. I appear here in a dual capacity; first, as a parent, and, 
secondly, as the president of the Bronx Neighborhood Association of Public School 37, 
the organization to which the Reverend Doctor Zeiter belongs, and whom I appointed 
as the Chairman of the Committee to appear before you gentlemen here this evening, 
and to voice the sentiments of the parents of the people of that school as well as the 
organization at large. 

I am opposed to the Gary system. I am in favor, rather, of the teachers' methods 
and the teachers' claims that they are underpaid, although I am not appearing here 
to-night to voice any sentiment on that proposition, but I wish to take exception on 
that one point of the remarks made by the gentleman who has just preceded me. 

Chairman Robitzek — Mr. Hahn, just keep to your subject, because I do not think— 
we do not want contradictions and answers thereto. This gentleman has a right to 
his opinion, and you express yours just on the subject you have in mind, if you will. 

Mr. Hahn — I have two sons, pupils in Public School 37. One is about to graduate. 
The other is in 6-A. I send those children to school to be taught, as they are in the 
habit of saying, the three R's. I am sending them there to receive the elementary 
schooling, that foundation upon which all our great men built their great and grand 
stations in life and the great things that they have done for the welfare and well being 
of this country, without a Gary plan. I have always maintained, Mr. Chairman, that 
the nation is built upon the school house, and not upon things as are set forth in a 
pamphlet which contains a criticism, or rather a writing concerning the good of the 
Gary system. 

Chairman Robitzek — Who is it by? 

Mr. Hahn — It is issued by an organization known as " Women and the City's 
Work." The front page is, " Modern Schools for New York City. A study showing 
what is being done for child welfare in the Sixth District of New York City and the 
possibilities of building up a ' child world " through the work-study-play plan of school 
organization " 

Now, gentlemen, I am not sending my children to school to learn how to play. 
I believe the American child, particularly the New York boy, needs no education 
in how to play. None of you gentlemen, I believe, required professional instruction 
at the hands of a teacher how to play baseball, nor tag, nor hide-and-go-seek, nor 
jump-over-back, and so forth, and so on. We send them there for purpose of 
receiving, as I have said before, an elementary education. Now, if you will bear 
with me a moment, I wish to call your attention specifically to certain things set forth 
in this pamphlet, whereby this organization boasts of the good of the Gary system. 
I fail to see it. For instance, it reads on page 29: 

" Visitors to the New York Gary schools must have observed how effectively 
the children run the lunch room service in those schools. Domestic science is not 
merely a special subject, but the children actually help buy the food and prepare a 



182 

lunch which is sold at profit. It is one thing to bake a cake according to a recipe 
in a cooking lesson ; it is another to bake a cake which must meet market standards 
and he good enough to sell over the counter." 

Very good for a lunch shop ; very good for a person sent to pie bakery or a bread 
bakery to learn how to bake bread, but I submit that neither I, or do I believe that 
there is any parent here present to-night that is sending his son to the public school 
to learn how to bake bread and bake it so well that it can be sold over the counter. 
I do not believe that is the intention of the parents (applause), to receive such an 
education at the hands of the great Board of Education of the City of New York. 

Another portion — it is printed so small I have to use two glasses. I do not 
know whether it was not intended to be read, but I will prove to you it was impos- 
sible to read it. I have pretty good sight. The Gary plan brings these special con- 
ditions within the reach of all children. A New York Gary school has now two drawing 
rooms, cooking room, sewing room, millinery room, printing shop, pottery shop, car- 
penter shop, sculpture class, garden and greenhouse — built by the children themselves, 
gymnasium, two science laboratories, one kindergarten, a five-acre farm in Bronx 
Park, pleasure ground measuring one-quarter acre, in addition to plumbing school, 
domestic science, model apartment, dress making, foundry, clay modeling and other 
shops to be decided upon later on. 

I would just suggest that an undertaking shop be also put in there (applause), 
because, Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, when my boy of five or six or your boy of six 
or five years of age is confronted with all that, he will be glad to lay down and be 
dead, and I am sincere in what I say. I am not simply making that statement to draw 
applause, but it is ridiculous. Think of it, children of five or six years of age and 
undergoing instruction in iron work, clay modeling, carpentry, dressmaking, sculpture, 
and I cannot think of them all, they are so many it is ridiculous. I think it is time 
that the citizens of this city will rise in a body and protest and call upon the Board 
of Aldermen through this committee to do its part towards the citizenship of the 
people, the body to whom they are responsible, and use your influence, its influence 
toward a betterment of the conditions as they exist in the schools to-day. (Applause). 

Mr. Chairman, you have received from the hands of Doctor Zeiter petitions 
signed by about 1,200 parents. Doctor Zeiter did not read this petition. I shall read 
it, with your permission. 

The Chairman — You may do that, Judge, but I may say that this will be printed in 
its entirety in the minutes of this proceeding. 

Mr. Hahn — I know, but if you will permit me I will read it for the benefit of 
these ladies and gentlemen. 

Chairman Robitzek — Go ahead. 

Mr. Hahn — " To His Honor, John Purroy Mitchel, Mayor of the City of New 
York, to the Members of the Board of Estimate and Apportionment, to the Members 
of the Board of Aldermen, to the Members of the Board of Education, and to the 
Members of the Board of Superintendents of Schools of the City of New York: 

Whereas, at present P. S. 37, Bronx, provides a seat for every pupil in the 
school, and 

Whereas, the teaching of multifarious trades interferes with the teaching of the 
essential subjects of the elementary school curriculum, and 

Whereas, a great deal of time is wasted by the masses of pupils attending audi- 
torium lectures under the Gary Duplicate plan, and 

Whereas, no educational benefits can be derived from ' teaching children how to 
play ' under the Gary Duplicate plan, and 

Whereas, school discipline under Gary Duplicate plan is made difficult by large 
groups of children who are constantly moving up and down through the building, and 

Whereas, no individual attention can be given to our backward children under the 
Gary Duplicate plan, and 



183 

Whereas, it is a physiological crime to have young children of our primary 
classes change from room to room a half a dozen times a day, and 

Whereas, the teachers have now sufficient burdens without adding an hour to 
their school day, 

Be it resolved that we, the members of the Bronx Neighborhood Association of 
Public School 37, hereby protest against the introduction of the Gary Duplicate plan 
into P. S. 37, Bronx, and 

Be it also resolved that we appeal to his Honor the Mayor of the City of New 
York, and to the members of the Board of Estimate and Apportionment and to the 
members of the Board of Aldermen and to the members of the Board of Education, 
and to the members of the Board of Superintendents to use their power and influence 
to prevent the introduction of the Gary Duplicate plan into P. S. 37, Bronx." 

Gentlemen, it took us about five minutes to draft that resolution and it took about 
two seconds to pass it. I dare say that there are possibly — Doctor Zeiter said about 
95 per cent, of the people of The Bronx — I dare say that there are 98 or 99 per cent, 
of The Bronx who are opposed to the introduction of the Gary system. We do not 
state this for reasons that we do not care to have it changed. If the change were a 
benefit or would add something, why possibly we would assume a different attitude, but 
it not only adds nothing, but it takes away from that which we have and adds things 
which further take away from the time devoted to the ordinary subjects that come 
before a class in an elementary school. We have studied this subject. We do not 
protest because one or two persons desire to have this thing brought about and have it 
simply tested. That is not the reason, because it is a test. If it were anything 
that were worth while testing we would heartily be in favor of it, but according to 
our analysis of it, according to our conclusions and to the findings, and we have 
devoted quite some time to the proposition, there is absolutely not a good thing to> it as 
against our old system, but Doctor Zeiter said there was some good things to it, but 
when you take it as a whole, as an entirety, against our present and fair-minded system, 
it is a failure. There is not a man in this city who can say that it is a success. 

A gentleman who appeared at the meeting of our organization, he sat next to me 
on the platform, and I said to him, Mr. So-and-so, I understand that you were 
formerly against this plan. He said yes. I said, are you in favor of it now. He 
said, yes, very much so. It is the best system that was ever invented. 

Who succeeded in bringing about this change of mind? He said myself. 1 
said, how? He said, through personal experience. I said, in how long a time? He 
said, one year; 

I was not told, Mr. Chairman, that that gentleman was detached from the Princi- 
palship and put into a squad, I will call it, of men to bring about through these 
various schools this change, and of course, incidentally, if a man is advanced, why. his 
salary is raised. I asked for one statement, one thing that would induce the ordinary 
man to change his mind on a proposition of that nature. He could not answer. He 
could give none. There was nothing at all that the gentleman could bring about to 
enthuse an intelligent man to inquire further as to whether or no there was any 
merit in the cause or not. 

So far as the teachers are concerned, they certainly have more to do than they 
can practically in a good, ordinary decent like manner handle. Every teacher earns 
every dollar that she or he receives and he earns and she earns much more besides their 
salary. There are men and women, noble teachers of Nature, who are not working 
from a commercial standpoint, but who have dedicated in thousands of cases their 
very lives for the benefit and the shaping of the character of our children, and I think 
that men and women who sacrifice their lives as our honored teachers do, are certainly 
worthy of the greatest respect and of very high thinking citizens of this town. 

I most respectfully urge your Honors to do your best in drawing about a change 



184 

of purpose in the minds of the school system authorities, in bringing, or in their 
attempt to bring into Public School 37, the Gary system. I presume that representa- 
tives have been here from other schools, and I speak not alone for Public School 37, 
but for all such persons, and I have met very few who are not in favor of it, and who 
are against the Gary plan. I thank you. 

Chairman Robitzek — Are there any other persons who want to be heard in re- 
gard to any matter now before this Committee? 

Mr. Schlosser — If I am permitted I would like to say some words in regard to 
what has been said here to-night. 

Chairman Robitzek — You have been at almost every meeting that we have had. 
Mr. Schlosser — I would like to add something. 

Alderman Collins — If there is anybody else from this particular district we would 
like to hear them. 

Mr. Gumpert — Mr. Chairman, just a few words I have to say. In the first place, 
one of the previous speakers — I have attended any number of Gary meetings — I have 
been particularly interested in the Gary system since its inception in this City and I 

have followed 

Chairman Robitzek — Are you presenting these facts to the Committee? I wish 
you would address the Committee. 

Mr. Gumpert — I addressed the Chairman when I started, but you wish me to face 
you, is that the idea? 

And the second previous speaker to me was the first one that I have met, in- 
cluding Mr. Wirt, who knew why the Gary system was introduced into New York 
City. Mr. Wirt himself has repeatedly shifted his view. It is a question to-day 
which no one is able to decide, whether the Gary system was introduced into this 
city because it was a benefit to the city, whether it was introduced into the city because 
of the fact that it introduces a school to accommodate more children than it would 
otherwise, whether it has been introduced into this city because of economy, that is 
whether less teachers are used under the Gary system than under the other system, 
as well may be questioned, and I am still waiting to hear the purpose, why Gary was 
introduced into New York City, and what its benefits are? 

As to increasing the length of time that a teacher has to serve and the so-called 
vacation that teachers get, please don't forget that vacation is given to the child and 
not to the teacher (applause) ; that vacation is given because it is utterly impossible 
for children to sit in a class room, 40, 50 or 60 children in a class room, working five 
hours a day in the months of July and August. People on the 25th and 35th story of 
an office building, high up above the heat, where there are only one or two persons in a 
large room, can hardly stand heat ; where are you going to put 50 human beings in 
one small room ? Your vacation is not for the teachers. That vacation is for the 
children. That is very easily shown by the fact that even though we have summer 
schools those summer schools are only for three hours a day and only for six 
weeks during the summer, at three hours a day. Do not forget that. 

I think in your travels around the city you have been rather thoroughly convinced 
that the majority of this city are absolutely opposed to Gary, so I won't devote my 
time to that, but there is one aspect of our system to-day that perhaps has not 
been touched upon, and that is what are called the outside activities. I suppose the 
outside activities, like a great many other things, started with a very clear, beneficial, 
theoretical purpose, but I think they have been abused or misused. 

Particularly take our athletics that we are having at the present time. We have 
in the day schools athletic centers. Theoretically it is the playground for the children 
after school. Practically there is an entirely different purpose to those centers. 
In the first place, the centers would not be so well attended as the authorities would 
like— this is on the feature of athletics. There was nobody that was more athletic 



185 

or fonder of athletics than I was when I was a youngster, and I still am, but when 
the athletics of the Gary system, or anything else under the outside activities, call it 
what you will, interferes with the five hours of elementary education that the 
children are getting to-day, I say cut it out. (Applause.) I do not care whether it is 
parades, or whether it is folk dancing, whether it is games, or whatever you may 
call it. The time that we have got in our schools to-day allotted to instruction 
under the best conditions with the curriculum that we have is entirely too short. 
(Applause.) Any one who knows — and from several remarks that have been passed 
by one of the members of your Committee, I presume at least one is familiar with 
a teacher's life — knows that the teacher has to work with might and main to cover 
the cost of study. It is almost utterly impossible under the conditions to cover the 
cost of study. 

Chairman Robitzek — Who do you represent? 

Mr. Gumpert — Just the common teachers. So that when you are going to in- 
troduce parades — for example, this past week, do you know that from now on until 
the 30th of June there is a discussion every afternoon from one on to half past 
three and four as to parading around the streets and preparing for a parade, 
drilling. 

Alderman Collins — Do you think that patriotic celebrations would interfere with 
the children's education at this particular time? 

Mr. Gumpert — It is taking away their class time. 

Alderman Collins— At this particular time it is taking away a few hours. Would 
you favor stopping that entirely ? 

Mr. Gumpert— Absolutely. I will tell you why. If that were the only thing, I 
might say no. 

Alderman Collins — I mean only the parading time. 

Mr. Gumpert — That is one feature. This time has been broken up right and 
left with all kinds of things that have come in and we have not got half way through 
our work. When those children are through on the 30th of June, for example, the 
30th of May, when they come back in the first or middle of June, they have graduation 
tests. Those boys have practically done nothing and as soon as they come back they 
are plunged Into tests. That is only one thing. 

Chairman Robitzek — What school are you from? 

Mr. Gumpert — 184, 116th street and Lenox avenue. That is one of the things, and 
all those things distract a child's mind. These athletic feats for example. They have 
their meetings- They take the minutes and read. Then they have got to be run. 
Then there is this and that. They have got to have talks. That is no more ended 
than something else begins. 

The point I am trying to make is this, that all these outside activities, whether 
parades or anything else, should be done outside school hours and not inside school 
hours. (Applause.) 

Alderman Collins — Are these athletic activities taken during the school period? 

Mr. Gumpert — There is a lot of time devoted. 

Alderman Collins — Is some time taken after 3 o'clock? 

Mr. Gumpert — Yes. 

Allerman Collins- — And on Saturday mornings? 

Mr. Gumpert — Not that I know of on Saturday. 

Alderman Collins — Is time taken after 3? 

Mr. Gumpert — Time is taken after 3, but there is considerable time taken before 
3. If it were all done after 3 I would say good, fine, but I am objecting to the part 
that is done before 3- 

Chairman Robitzek — How often a week is it that they interfere with the school 
hours between 9 and 3? 



186 

Alderman Collins — So far as athletics are concerned? 

Mr. Gumpert — Athletics itself, before a meeting, practically every day. 

Chairman Robitzek — How long on an average every day? 

Mr. Gumpert — I could not give you that. 

Chairman Robitzek — An hour or two? 

Mr. Gumpert — It is two minutes here and five minutes here, right through the 
day. One notice comes in for the 100 pound relay ; another notice comes in for the 
ISO yards; five minutes later a notice comes in, did you pay for your ticket? Two 
minutes later something else. It is not only the two and five minutes, but you are 
in the middle of an explanation. Your thread of thought is broken and the chil- 
dren's certainly is. You have got to go back and start all over again, and if ydu 
succeed in getting back you are a wonder. 

Of course, athletics are interesting to a boy more than the square root example, 
no question about it, or it may be something else. Any number of things are crop- 
ping up all the time. Those things are supposed to be outside activities, which to me 
means outside of the class room, and therefore I would urge that in order to improve 
our system that in one respect these outside activities be made real outside activities 
and taken away from the class room. 

Chairman Robitzek — Who else desires to present their views to this committee? 

Mr. Edward J. Murray — I am not a teacher and I am not a parent, but I spent 
some time as an inspector in the schools and I learned a little of the system, I think. 
The impression I gained of the system, the manner in which the education is carried 
out in the City of New York at the present is this : 

They have entirely too much inspection, too much interruption of the teacher, the 
class of the teacher. In the first place, the class teacher — I am not going to guess 
about the teacher, because I have my opinion about some teachers and I have a much 
better opinion about others, and about the amount of money that is paid and the 
vacation, and I am not going to look for applause either on one side or the other 
in that respect, because my opinion is not unanimous on all the teachers ; but I want 
to say that in the first place the teacher has to be competent. She has to pass a long 
period of education before she is made a teacher, pass examinations, put in a proba- 
tion term, and so on, and then when she gets through, we are to understand she is 
competent to teach. 

What is done? She is given a class. She has a head of department. Of course 
I suppose that is proper, but she has a head of department to direct her, but what 
in the world is the use of having a special teacher to come in when we have a teacher 
there already and that teacher who has a class understands the subject, and we don't 
need any of these special teachers at all. The teacher is competent to teach the 
subject, and we have so many supervisors and superintendents and inspectors. 

I was one of the nuisances myself. I used to go in some time, but I took it for 
granted, although I went through the school system here, I took it for granted that 
the school teacher knows more about it at the present day than I did, and I never 
attempted to interrupt her. 

Why, when I would go up once in awhile, I would be bold enough to do it at 
closing exercises or something of that sort, and say a few words, I would find out 
some teachers had decided it was Cicero ; it was not Cicero. I was told I was a back 
number, but I want to say this : I am speaking as a citizen, not as a parent or as a 
teacher, that we have too much inspection and too much supervision and too many 
special teachers, and too many special subjects, and the teacher should be given her 
time to get through her schedule and then if she does not do it criticize her ; but it is 
not fair to criticize the teacher if she is going to be interrupted all the time. 

Chairman Robitzek — How long is it since you have been an inspector? That 
office is not in existence now. 



187 

Mr. Murray — No, it is not in existence now. I was one of the original inspectors. 
That is the time during the Strong administration. They call them now members of 
the Local School Board. I was brought up, as I told you, in the system myself, edu- 
cated in the system, rather, and I want to say that if the demonstration we had here 
tonight, if we are to judge our school system by the interruption which we had on the 
street here, the teachers I think would not be proud of it, for those girls coming up 
here, rushing in and going out; you gentlemen noticed it, they came up in the galleries 
here and yelled and shouted and you come around to almost any public lecture where 
there are supposed to be adults . 

Chairman Robitzek — Those were boys. 

Mr. Murray — Those were boys. The girls are just as bad as the boys in that 
respect. It is very funny. Serious side to it, though. I want to tell you. I did not 
come here to be just a buffoon or anything of that sort, but I came here to point out 
some of the things that strike me as a citizen, that is all. I want to call attention to 
another thing. 

The use of chalk. You are providing chalk in the schools. You are teaching 
children to use that chalk. The children come out from the school and they deface the 
windows, the doors and the sidewalks, every place with that chalk, and if they are 
walking along the street and have a parcel in their hands, one of the children will 
come out and pull the paper off the parcel and throw it on the street and never look 
at the state of the street they are walking on ; it is all right to walk, but they should 
allow other people to do the same thing, but they rush along. 

They have a policeman standing at every crossing near a school to stop the cars. 
The children learn that. You are wondering why you have so many accidents. Chil- 
dren should be taught that. Teach them to go along the street properly and respect 
other people's rights. Then they will respect others' property and their own and 
they seem to have no limit to the expenditures in the public schools. There are 
terrible wastes there, and that should be cut out and could be cut out. Teach them 
the rudiments. Never mind fancy stuff. They are teaching plumbing in some of the 
Gary schools that is antiquated, teaching them how to make certain parts of plumbing 
which come already manufactured and which the plumber has not to make at all. 

I understand that is the objection of the labor unions to the Gary system. Now, 
my point is this : Give them a simple education, keep them down to the rudiments. 
Teach them to read and write. Teach them the alphabet so they will know one letter 
from the other. Teach them to spell. The children of the schools cannot spell any 
more. 

Of course they have invented a new system now to make spelling almost any 
way you like, but it is good to agree on some certain form and let the children spell 
in that way, but they don't generally do it. Take mathematics. Give a child a small 
problem in mathematics and they will sit down to figure it out. Is this correct? 
Isn't it? They are not sure, they are not sure whether it is, but take one of the old 
fashioned boys. He would start in and he only knew one way to do it and he would 
do it in that way and then if you said to him, is that correct? Yes, it is, and he is 
ready to fight for it That is the way. He knew one way to do it and he got it 
right, and if you said it was wrong, he was going to lick you, because he knew it was 
right. Teach them that. 

Chairman Robitzek — Who else desires to address the committee? 

Mr. John Henry Smith — I do not represent, but I have talked with a great many 
men and women that have children at the public schools and it is merely what these 
men and women tell me that I am going to tell you. The majority of the men and 
women object to any Gary system in the United States, any religious system, any re- 
ligious system whether Gary or anything else. This system caused trouble and fights 
among the boys. They have three denominations in the public schools of the United 



188 

States, Protestant, Roman Catholic and Hebrew. The word religion should not be 
mentioned in school at all. because this country is not a religious country at all, but a 
business country. 

Alderman Collins — Are you going to enter into some discussion of the religious 
teacher in the public schools? 

Mr. Smith — No, suggest some things. You are publishing in the paper that 
parents should come here and give suggestions regarding the public schools. 

Alderman Collins — But we limit speakers to some extent. If you have any sug- 
gestion or criticism about religion, no matter what the religion may be, in the public 
schools, we do not care to hear it. 

Mr. Smith — Then I think the children have too many studies, too many to carry. 
Their feeble minds cannot carry or remember them. The majority, I admit, should 
be given. The poor man does not send his children to learn to make clay models. 
The poor man sends his children to learn to read and write. I can go to the city 
of London and bring you twelve boys and I will back those twelve boys against 
twelve New York boys, and those twelve English boys will beat your boys in reading, 
writing and arithmetic, and I will put $10 down to do it. 

That is wrong. It is actually a disgrace to the school system that we should send 
any outside principal to come into New York City to teach the Board of Education 
and the members how to run the public schools. If any change is to be made at all 
in the public schools the people in New York City should make the change. No out- 
side principal should be brought in. Let them attend to their own business. What 
is good in Gary, Indiana, is wrong here. We have just as good educated men here, 
as good as any in the world, educated and substantial men in New York City as any 
place, but they have no right to listen to other parties and other parties have no right 
to come here and teach them how to run the public schools. It is a shame and dis- 
grace for New York City to have that done. It is entirely wrong. 

Then the other matters. I think the Gary system says the boys don't get enough 
play in the schools. I tell you they get too much time. If you give the boy any 
more play it would spoil the whole thing, spoil the whole education. In years past 
we had great men and they didn't have half the books and studies as now, just as good 
men as now. Abraham Lincoln never had half of the books to study, and he did not 
have a bundle of books under his arm, but he has been a splendid man, grand and 
eloquent. I believe in doing away with a great many of the books, and I would ask 
you gentlemen to change the system so that the poor man's boy doesn't go to make 
clay models and carpenter shops and this and that. He wants him to read and write. 
That is the change that should be made in the public schools. 

Just one word for the school teacher. I think any man or woman, especially a 
woman, that spends 15 or 20 years teaching school, she has done more for posterity 
than the Mayor of the City, the Governor of the State, or even the President of the 
United States. (Applause.) Because she has helped to educate the young, and a 
nation without learning is no good. Look for instance, gentlemen, down there at 
Mexico. There is a country with religion but no education. As I say, the man or 
woman that teaches school for 20 years is a splendid woman, and I take off my hat 
and bow to any man or woman that teaches school for 20 years. They are splendid. 
(Applause.) 

Chairman Robitzek — Does anybody else want to present their views? 

Miss Agnes DeLina — I represent the Women's Municipal League, and I simply 
want to speak about three statements made here to-night. 

The statement was made here to-night that at a recent meeting held up in Public 
School 37, that the speakers, who were Mr. Taylor and Mr. McCarthy, the statement 
was made by a gentleman to-night that he understood that this gentleman had admitted 
that the time given to the academic subject was less under the Gary plan than under 
the old system, and so far as my information goes and so far as the figures that I 



189 

have seen regarding the Gary school plan show, there is just exactly as much time 
under the Gary plan given to the study as the three R's, or given to English, arithmetic 
and geography, all the things they have under the old system. 

Chairman Robitzek — What school are you referring to? 

Miss DeLina — Any of the Gary schools. 

Chairman Robitzek — You spoke of one school. 

Miss DeLina — I am just simply referring to the meeting at which this statement 
was made. I was not there. I am Chairman of the Education Committee of the 
Women's Municipal League. 

Chairman Robitzek — Is that the association or society that issued the pamphlet 
that Judge Hahn was referring to? 

Miss DeLina — Yes. And then the other point that was made to-night was that 
the majority of the teachers who have taught in the Gary schools are against the 
Gary plan. That statement also I believe does not hold true for at least one Gary 
school where the study was made. I do not know whether any of the other Gary 
schools, whether the teachers were actually questioned, but in P. S. 89 where the 
plan is in existence longest a questionaire of the teachers recently asked whether they 
wanted to go back to the old system, and the great majority of 89 teachers said they 
did not want to go back to the old system because the present system gave them 
better conditions. 

Chairman Robitzek— Where is P. S. 89? 

Miss DeLina — Out in Flatbush. 

Chairman Robitzek — That is Miss Ritter's school? 

Miss DeLina — That is Miss Ritter's school. Also a study made of the parents in 
that district, some one went around, investigators went around and asked the parents 
whether or not they wished to goback to the old system, and a great majority of the 
500 parents that were questioned, they stated they did not wish to go back to the old 
system. They liked the Gary system, so in that one school at least the parents and 
teachers were for the plan. 

Chairman Robitzek — I do not think that Judge Hahn stated that he had any 
knowledge of the parents, other than Public School 45 in the Bronx. 

Miss DeLina — You remember at the hearing up at 45, the first Bronx hearing, 
there were a number of parents from there that spoke in favor of Public School 45, 
the parents of that school, of the Gary plan. 

Chairman Robitzek — I am not taking issue with that. 

Miss DeLina — I am not claiming that at all, but I think it is not good to have that 
in the record. 

Chairman Robitzek — Go right ahead. 

Miss DeLina — Those three things are the things I want to mention. 

A Voice — Were the teachers of Public School 89 required to sign their names 
to the blank or not, the questionaire sent around? 

Chairman Robitzek — In Public School 89 in Flatbush? 

A Voice — Yes, the school just referred to. 

Chairman Robitzek — Probably Miss Orr can tell us. 

Miss Mary Orr — I asked Mrs. Ritter that, and I believe I am right in stating 
they came to her voluntarily. She told me about 37 or 39 out of either 42 or 43 
had signed, and I believe voluntarily. I can easily find that out for you positively, 
but that is my impression. 

Mrs. Frankel — Regarding the teachers, I personally interviewed any number of 
the teachers in the Gary school and each and every one was under a terrific nervous 
strain. As a matter of fact, the teachers who are under the Gary system within a 
period probably of a year and a half became physical wrecks for it is Bedlam let loose. 
Can you imagine a child given the privilege of speaking and walking and doing 
as it pleases? (applause). Is is almost — it is impossible to teach properly under 



190 

the Gary system for the children's minds are not concentrated upon the subject. 
All they think of is running about and pulling each others' hair — this is in answer 
to the teachers who teach under the Gary system. 

Personally I have spoken to them and asked them particularly how, and I have 
witnessed this atmosphere of the children coming into the class rooms, running 
down in their feet, and their minds anywhere and everywhere but on their subjects 
or studies. There is a school at 107th Street and Lexington Avenue. Every child 
had a seat in that school. Within the last six months nothing has been said, but 
suddenly men came in tearing apart the building, establishing the Gary school system. 
There were no part time-classes in that school. There was no reason for disturbing 
that school. 

Chairman Robitzek — What school is that? 

Mrs. Frankel — P. S. 72. Every child had a seat there. The rooms were torn 
apart. I do not see why. We all know it is better that every child has a seat and 
smaller classes are better than large classes. They have 500 children assembled. 
For instance, this one seats 500, and I as a teacher, trying to teach the children, 
some cannot see so far and some cannot hear so well. 

Chairman Robitzek — This seats a thousand. 

Mrs. Frankel — This seats a thousand, but just imagine 500 children that I should 
seat at one time. Can you imagine what teaching will take place? How much 
knowledge the children will acquire? The Gary system has that method. 500 in 
one auditorium. 

They are tearing apart the class rooms and making one auditorium. Do you 
believe it is a better form of teaching, having much smaller classes and teaching 
and knowing each and every child in her class room, insteand of having every 40 
minutes another class of children? How can a teacher know an individual child? 
It is absolutely necessary to know the child in training or teaching children. 

Chairman Robitzek — What school are you interested in? I believe you are the 
head of a parents' association? 

Mrs. Frankel — I have visited the Public School 45, observed there, and visited other 
sections, but 45 I have made a special study of. I have gone to the very cellar 
where I found men shoveling coal. The men were moulding figures during school 
periods of teaching. I have been everywhere. I have been right through the 
entire school, observing carefully, and have made it a special study and I take 
interest in knowing what is going on in the Gary system. 

I have found outside in the morning children trying to make a fence for a 
little plot of ground, instead of studying arithmetic, the best hour of the morning, 
when the mind is fresh, hammering nails, in the cold outside air. 

That is the Gary system. I do not see why we should force that system upon 
the City of New York, not until it is found to be a better system than what we 
have had at the present time. Twelve schools in the Bronx ought to be quite 
a sufficient number to make a study of the Gary system and then observe and study 
carefully, and if it is found efficient and better, then only introduce it into other 
parts of the system, in other schools, but I do not see why the schools should have 
an extension of the Gary system. 

Superintendent Taylor, I believe if you would ask him to give a definite, final 
answer, is the Gary system better than what we have today, I think he himself 
cannot say, in fact, lately he said he cannot tell us yet. Still we are forcing it 
throughout the city. There is something wrong. 

Chairman Robitzek — He was very emphatic before the committee in favor of it. 

Mrs. Frankel — Well, possibly before the committee, and for that reason, it is 
the committee taking an educational point of view. The educator, the societies, 
the principals and superintendents of the city I believe have been fully coming 
to the conclusion that it is a better form of teaching, or a better form of education. 



191 

I think it would be advisable, and the parents of the City of New York, the 
parents of children attending the school, are all willing to get a better — if there is 
a better form of teaching, but are not willing to accept a system which has not 
proven to be better, and up to the present time the parents feel that it is not a 
better form of teaching. 

As a matter of fact the parents who have children under the Gary system are 
opposed to it. They complain, on the contrary, against the system. They are 
helpless. Many of them have moved from the Gary school system so as to! take 
the children away from those sections, but the parents throughout the city, we may 
say as a whole, object to the Gary system up to the present time, and we all] ask that 
the Board should recommend that it shall not be introduced throughout until it 
is found to be efficient. 

Mrs. Magnus — I would like to say a few words in regard to this question. First 
of all, I presume you gentlemen have read the report of the Chamber of Cbm- 
merce in regard to the schools. I believe that their criticisms were absolutely well 
founded. I think their deductions were most mistaken. 

They speak there that the children are sent out of the schools lacking in 
moral training. I think all of us who have worked closely with the schools know 
that there is only too much truth in that. 

Then they go to work, and to my amazement, they recommend that the very 
things that are causing that shall be increased. You may remember a few week® 
ago you had a hearing in a school at 93rd Street and Amsterdam. When I wasi 
first appointed an inspector of schools in '93, that school had been opened less 1 
than a year. It was opened in 1892. We had three schools there, a primary 
department. We had one principal. We had a girls' primary, with a principal 
and a boys' grammar with a principal. There were 48 classrooms in the whole 
building and there were three principals, but each one was able to know their own 
teachers and to know their children, and the teachers of classes, none of them over 
40, many much less, and they were able to know their children intimately and to 
give them some training. That was before the time of departmental work, with 
the result that the children should have a term with a teacher and during that time 
the teacher came to know the child, to know its idiosyncrasies, its weaknesses, its 
strength, and was able to handle it and give it what it needed. 

To-day in that building, after an addition that has about 18 rooms, which make 
66 rooms in the building now, we have one school with one principal. Now, gentle- 
men, think of it. That principal has to handle 66 teachers. That principal has 
to go around. Imagine how much the principal can know what is going on 5rl 
the class room, and how much he can know of the children with 66 classes under 
her. That is one of the very bad features of the Gary system, this duplicate 
school system. It is a departmental work from the first year. The children are 
passed on to different teachers. No teacher is able to come to know a child in- 
timately. No teacher is able to come to know where that child needs special train- 
ing. 

I think you will remember that need if you had departmental teaching, geog- 
raphy ; the geography teachers thought you should spend all the time on geography ; 
the English teacher thought she should only spend the time on English, and the his- 
tory teacher thought you should spend all your time on history, and the consejquenr.e 
was each one expected you were going to do her subject or his subject. 

These small children are under the same sort of feeling, because they are passed 
from one teacher to another, and then the teacher, as I think was mentioned before 
lo you, about Public School 109 — 

Chairman Robitzek— P. S. 89. 

Mrs. Magnus — No, P. S. 109 Brooklyn, that school is being reorganized under 



192 

the duplicate school system. It will have 121 classes under it, under one principal. 
The principal cannot do very much training of teachers. That is one reason why 
so many inspectors come into the schools. The principals cannot get around. They 
cannot help young teachers. They cannot help weak teachers. It is utterly im- 
possible. 

Chairman Robitzek — But I understand there are inspectors. 

Mrs. Magnus — They are teachers of special subjects. This gentleman spoke of 
the old inspectors of schools. 

Chairman Robitzek — I remember them when I went to school. 

Mrs. Magnus — Those inspectors were instituted for a special purpose in 1892. 
When there was a change in the school system they succeeded the trustees. Then 
later on there was a change to the Local School Boards. The trustees were the 
first. Then came the Board of Inspectors. Then came the Local School Boards, but we 
have now in the schools special teachers ; teachers of drawing, teachers of medicine, 
teachers of sewing, special teachers, because they are absolutely unable to go around 
and see how a. teacher is doing and during the past year many of the inspectors 
were cut out. Special teachers in the class room. 

Chairman Robitzek — These special teachers, are they inspectors? 

Mrs. Magnus — They inspect. They go around and visit the classes. They 
supervise the work of their own special subject. 

The Chairman — Only one for one school? 

Mrs. Magnus — No, they go to many schools. 

Alderman Ferguson — One inspector to cover more than one school? 

Mrs. Magnus — Yes. 

Chairman Robitzek — Are these special subjects? 

Mrs. Magnus — These are special subjects, they will go from school to school, 
handling music. They will give special lessons. -hey will see how the teacher 
is doing, and give her special work to do. They will come back later and see how 
that work is done. 

Chairman Robitzek — Inspectors existed under the former system? 

Mrs. Magnus — Yes. 

Chairman Robitzek — They came for the purpose oP surprising the teachers? 

Mrs. Magnus — Yes, they were laymen. 

Mr. Murray — I object to that. If you want any explanation of the inspectors 
ask me. 

Mrs. Magnus — I feel that a great deal of the difficulty is in the enormous sizes 
of classes, and in the enormous sizes the schools are attaining where the child be- 
comes merely one of a thousand or so, and does not get the individual teaching that 
it ought to have. 

In regard to the Gary system, I asked Mr. Wirt some time ago how many pupils 
they had in the schools in Gary, and he told me five thousand. I asked him how many 
teachers, and he told me one hundred and twenty-five. 

Chairman Robitzek — That is a fair proportion. 

Mrs. Magnus— Yes; that is about forty children to a class, and I have recently 
learned that those one hundred and twenty-five teachers and five thousand children 
are divided up into nine schools, and each school in Gary 

Chairman Robitzek — Are there nine schools in Gary? 

Mrs. Magnus — There are nine schools in Gary. 

Chairman Robitzek — I understood there are five. 

Mrs. Magnus — I was told. This I do not know of my own knowledge, but I was 
told, and if I am not mistaken, Mr. Metcalf gave me that information. 

I understand, that is what I am told, that there are nine schools. 

Chairman Robitzek — Miss Orr might possibly answer that question. 

Mrs. Magnus — Do you know how many schools there are in Gary? 



193 

Miss Orr — No; I think probably nine, because there are a lot of small schools. 
Mrs. Magnus— Three large schools, and then the other six schools are very much 
smaller; but those five thousand are divided in nine schools, and I understand that 
each school in Gary has two heads — an academic head and a business head. Here we 
have almost 5,000 children in one school under one head. 

Chairman Robitzek— I suppose the business head takes care of those special sub- 
jects,' scientific subjects? 

Mrs. Magnus— I believe that there is something of that kind. There would be 
an academic head and one to take care of the other kind of subjects. 

Remember, gentlemen, I have never been in Gary, and I can only say what I 
have heard, what I have understood. It seems to me when we see — I was not here 
when there was any trouble about these children running into the building, but I 
think we are seeing all over the City of New York of late years the lack of discipline, 
the lack of training and the lack of discipline that our children are suffering from 
(Applause.) They need to have more people to be able to control and discipline 
them. All of us have to recognize law. We have to recognize some superior 
authority, and these children are growing up without any sense of that, and it is 
because it is utterly impossible for the people over them to do that. They are over- 
burdened with the size of the classes in the schools, and I think the tiling we ought 
to work for instead of bigger schools in one building is more buildings and very 
much smaller schools in each one of them. 

Miss Mary Orr — May I say just a few words? 

I cannot quite agree with Mrs. Magnus in your feeling concerning the Gary 
schools, but I am very anxious to bring her around as I am trying to bring some of 
the members of the Board of Aldermen, because it seems to me that in this City 
with the congestion and the congestion growing more and more, when we remember 
that in 1893, I think it is — just correct me if I am wrong — the part time began, which 
is one of our great evils. The part time we have struggled with and I believe the 
Ettinger system — Mr. Ettinger tried then very conscientiously to correct the part-time 
evil — and these Ettinger schools, I have one in my own district and it is running 
splendidly, but I do not care for it as I do the Gary and it is doing very fine work, 
but the Gary does away with part time. 

I do not quite understand. Here is one of our greatest evils, and we must have it 
in congested districts. I am sorry for it. These large schools, but the 5000 school is 
the exception. There are not very many of them. 

Mrs. Magnus — I grant that. I do not say there is a school with 5000 in New 
York, but they are approximating it. 

Miss Orr — The one in my district, which is the largest, and it is an Ettinger 
school, and it is 2600. We can empty the school in about 3 minutes and a half in a 
fire drill, and I think that one matter of the part time, which is a great evil — I 
have heard people talk here tonight about a seat for each child. It is impossible in 
the City and 1 think one of the gentlemen spoke of vacant seats in our schools. Mr. 
Maxwell himself said that if we counted the vacant seats in our system, we would find 
about 50,000 but unfortunately, those vacant seats are not available. They are not in 
the congested districts, and we cannot build single schools fast enough or have we 
room enough in congested districts to use single sessions. We must use some sort of 
duplicate session and the most practical duplicate session so far has been the Gary 
system, and the other part time school has been an evil as I say, and in P. S. 89 in 
Brooklyn, I come from Brooklyn, and I have been in 89 quite a number of hours — 
I know Mrs. Ritter quite well, and I have watched the teachers and the part time was 
eliminated, and Dr. Taylor has said, I have forgotten the number of the school in the 
Bronx, because I have not visited there at all. I have been only part of a morning 
in P. S. 45, and that part time has been eliminated there. 



194 

Why, gentlemen, think of the great evil that has been helped and done away with 
by duplicate session schools. We call it an evil and it has been wiped out by the 
Gary system. 

I wonder what we are talking about ! And then, have you watched the spirit of 
that school? Have you gone in the school and seen the interest of the children. 
Have you seen the interest of a principal like Mrs. Ritter and her own teachers? I 
can only tell what she tells me. I stood in the graduating class, and those children, 
from their own self reliant attitude — why we owe a great deal to the Gary system. 
I turned to Mrs. Ritter. I said is this testimony? I hope you will go to these schools, 
and the principal herself said I owe this to the Gary system. 

The number of minutes for the periods for the three Rs is exactly the same, I am 
told, and in their examination they stand high, but we use the seats twice. It cer- 
tainly is a very practical arrangement. The gentlemen wrote off the foundry off the 
printing and dressmaking, the millinery and sculpture, but one child does not take 
them all. The child observes these things and what they are adapted to they take up. 
It is a wonderful new system. Why don't you go to the schools and see them for 
yourselves. It is so much better than talking about it. Get into the atmosphere of 
the system. Let me ask how many have visited the various Gary schools here. 

( Members of the audience stand up.) 

Miss Orr — You see only a few. May I ask if you have been in a Gary system 
school. 

Chairman Robitzek — I have. 

Miss Orr — 1 am a very strong pro-Gary ite, and I am standing for the Gary schools 
and am delighted to go on in favor of them. 

Chairman Robitzek — Of those who had their hands up as visiting the Gary schools, 
how many are opposed to the Gary system. 

(Members of audience stand.) 

Miss Orr — They all are opposed to them (applause). I do not mind. I still stand 
for the Gary school. 

Chairman Robitzek — Those that had their hands up and visited Gary schools, how 
many of them are in favor of it? 

(One hand raised.) 

Mi^s Orr I am sorrj for you. That is all. 

Mrs. Hovrick — 1 am not speaking as one that is a teacher or that gets up to 
praise the Gary system. 1 don't get $25 a week to praise it. but I am a mother that 
was lined $5 in the Domestic Relations Court for trying to give my child a proper 
education. 1 have refused to send my child to a Gary school because I seen that 
his time would b< devoted to nothing (applause). 

For that reason 1 have been brought to the Domestic Relations Court where all 
different parts of trouble arc found and I think I was the only one there that every- 
body thought that it was a pity and a shame to bring me there and I was trying 
to get my child into a proper and good elementary education; but to my sorrow, we 
found out that ladies that have no children whatsoever, no knowledge about a child, 
arc standing up to say that the Gary system is an A-l (applause). Could one of 
those two ladies tell me how many children they have? 

Miss Orr— My support goes to the schools of New York. 

Mrs. Novrick — I am very sorry, Miss Orr, I am very sorry. I was disturbed by 
her saving Miss. I did not know. I thought it was ladies that had children. I am 
very sorry. That is why I think they ought to go to their homes and mind their 
own business and let the mothers mind their children's business (applause). 

If people would be satisfied with this system there would be no protest meet- 
ings. There would not be anything of that sort. I think every mother would stand 
up and say. this is fine for my child. I think there is plenty of mothers have a 



19S 

little brains and can know what is good for their children and others shall not in- 
terfere for this Gary system to be put into effect in the City of New York. They 
ought to leave it to the people to say if they want it, and not to say they have got 
to take what we give them. 

I hope those people get fine salaries to come over to every protest meeting and 
say it is so fine and valuable and I hope they would stay home and not ask us to 
pay for something. I paid a fine in court. 
I thank you (applause). 

Miss Oxr — Did the lady say that I am paid $25 a week? I am not paid any- 
thing. I am a volunteer. I am a worker in the schools under local board. I thought 
there was an intimation I was paid. 

Chairman Robitzek — I did not understand that way. 

Alderman Friedlander — I don't think she thought you were paid by anybody for 
the interest you take. 

Mrs. K. Sullivan — Mr. Chairman and Ladies and Gentlemen : I do not wish to 
say very much, ladies and gentlemen, to take up your time. I Just simply want to 
say that the speaker who preceded me may appear to show some members of the 
audience as a sort of unfit type to be here when some of the ladies heard she had 
been fined in court. I want to say that this lady protested against sending her child 
17 blocks from home because he was inclined to be tubercular, and she had a phys- 
ician's certificate signed by a Notary Public with her when she protested and when 
she was taken to court, and it was not accepted or would not even be looked at. 
That is just what happened. She is a good, honest, kind mother and not a woman 
looking for trouble and not a woman that wishes to get up and create a disturbance 
any place ; and I also wish to say that I have been delegated by the Jefferson Club 
of Greenpoint. 17th Ward, to ask you gentlemen if you will accept an invitation for 
next Friday evening, a week from tomorrow night, or if you cannot attend your- 
self, to send a committee to the Jefferson Club rooms of the 17th Ward of Brooklyn. 
There is to be a very large meeting and it will not be made up of rioting 
mothers or any person who is illiterate, because we expect to have some of our city 
officials there, men prominent in all walks of city life to talk to the people and the 
people are protesting against the tiansfer seventeen blocks away from their homes 
of children, some tubercular, with heart trouble, many anaemic, and- one girl I spoke 
of at a previous meeting who was walking with braces from infantile paralysis, and 
•compelled to walk this distance. 

Chairman Robitzek — Where is this school? 

Mrs. Sullivan — In Greenpoint. I spoke of it at the meeting last week. 
Chairman Robitzek — Weren't we right within the vicinity of that Greenpoint 
school? 

Mrs. Sullivan — You were a long distance from it. 
Chairman Robitzek — How far? 
Mrs. Sullivan — Some miles. 

Chairman Robitzek — How about the Brownsville section, weren't we in that 
vicinity at both of those meetings and didn't we hear speakers. 

Mrs. Sullivan — I don't know that. Alderman Bassett was to be here and I was 
told to meet him, and when he was not here to speak, of course I was asked by the 
Jefferson Club to speak in his stead. 

Chairman Robitzek — I don't think Alderman Basset has spoken. He is a mem- 
ber of the committee. 

Mrs. Sullivan — Perhaps not. 

Chairman Robitzek — Perhaps he has been unavoidably detained. We will take 
that up in Executive Session. 

Mrs. Sullivan — The school was de-graded, the one located on Dupont street- I 
think you have that in your minutes. 



196 

Chairman Robitzek — We heard about that. 

Mrs. Sullivan — That is just the situation in Brooklyn where this lady came from. 
The school was de-graded and the children forced to walk from 17 to 20 blocks. 
The oldest is 13. 

That is the reason we are protesting, because there is a school right in the imme- 
diate vicinity to accommodate every child to receive the benefit of the regular curri- 
culum and every child had a scheduled time in the school. 

I thank you. 

Chairman Robitzek — The lady that spoke before, is she from Greenpoint? 

Mrs. Sullivan — Yes. 

Chairman Robitzek — I thought she was from Harlem. 

Mrs. Magnus — I have visited three Gary schools ; visited P- S. 45 in The Bronx, 
P. S. 89 in Brooklyn, and I visited Mr. McCarty's school in The Bronx. 

Chairman Robtizek — 44 I think. 

Mrs. Magnus — I forget the exact number, but I visited it when he was running 
on a duplicate plan that he had arranged and after it was changed to the Gary school. 

I have visited part-time schools also. I am very glad to say that in my own dis- 
trict we have some vacant seats being used for a high school, so we have no question 
of part time, or duplicate system, or anything else, unless it is thrust upon us, as they 
have attempted two or three times. We have so far fortunately staved it off. There 
is, in my opinion, no question that the duplicate school is an infinite improvement 
upon the old part time. Part time was a very bad make-shift. The duplicate school 
is an improvement, but I do not believe that it is as good as the system that we have 
been used to. I believe that it makes, as I said before, it makes entirely too large a 
school. Another thing, they lay great stress on the Gary plan because of the intro- 
duction of various vocational subjects. There has been a very decided sentiment 
among educators in regard to introducing vocational work in the schools. It has 
been popular. I am very glad to know that Professor David Snowden, of Massa- 
chusetts, who has made a very, very careful study of vocational work, has done a 
great deal in regard to it in Massachusetts, has come out as entirely opposed to 
vocational work in the schools. lie says that it cannot be made practicable, that the 
work to-day is so very much specialized that it is impossible for vocational work 
to be effectively put into schools. 

Something else should be done and 1 think that that is one of the very weak 
parts of the Gary system. 

Another thing, meeting in the assembly. I was in Mrs. Ritter's school. I spent 
the entire day and went through there and we spent 40 minutes in the auditorium. 
Twenty minutes was used in singing. The other 20 minutes was spent in having 
small secretaries of small clubs read the minutes of the various meetings. We all 
of us belong to organizations, and know that reading the last minutes is tedious 
enough and that generally they are passed as submitted- These children had to sit 
there and listen to the minutes of clubs they were not concerned with at all, and one 
felt sorry for them, and I spread myself out as much as possible for three or four 
tots who were having a delightful time in my protective shadow. 

They are spending a lot of money in the schools for the Gary system. We have 
not got it and we are getting a makeshift for the schools in the meantime, for the 
sake of economy. It is an improvement on part time, but it is not what New York City 
should give its children. They are economizing on them and our children are suf- 
fering, and it is not a good thing. We ought to do better and we ought to be ashamed 
of ourselves. 

Mr. Schlosser — I want to say about the handicraft system, that I am opposed to 
any system that makes a liar out of a child. Repeatedly lately I have been called upon 
by parents from schools in my neighborhood and been handed little articles the boys 



197 

had made that were in no presentable condition and asked to build them and was 
paid for building them, and they were palmed off as being the handiwork of the 
students. 

Chairman Robitzek — What school is this? 

Mr. Schlosser — 32 and 45. 

Chairman Robitzek — In The Bronx? 

Mr. Schlosser — Therefore, when they were palmed off as the boys' handiwork in 
the school examination, they learned that boy to be a liar and that should not be. 

As to the teachers and their pay, very few of them have reason to take better 
paying private positions outside. 

Alderman Colilns — Yes, they have. 

Mr. Schlosser — Because in addition to teaching themselves they bring their wives 
to school. That is one of the questions in the schools that has got to be eliminated. 
The matter of the mother teaching in the school is a great disgrace, and I ask your 
committee to pay special attention to see that every young woman that marries when 
she is a teacher, that a law be passed that her marriage automatically cancels her and 
she goes back and gives a place for some other young girl whose parents have spent 
years of time and money to get her a position as teacher. 

Chairman Robitzek — P. S. 132, Wadsworth avenue and 182d street, Monday night, 
May 28, 1917, at 8 P. M. 



MINUTES OF HEARING BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON GENERAL WEL- 
FARE OF THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN ON THE FOLLOWING MATTER: 

"No, 1242 — Request of the Conference of Organized Labor to the Board to hold 
hearings and to invite the Board of Education and City officials to answer why 
the demands for better educational facilities have not been requested." 

Public School No. 132, Wadsworth Avenue and 182d Street, Manhattan, New 
York City, May 25th, 1917, at 8 P. M. 
Present — Aldermen Robitzek, Chairman ; Collins, Ferguson, Friedlander. 

Alderman Collins — On this very stormy night, I think you are to be congratulated 
for showing here in such large numbers. The Chairman of this Committee is absent 
and in his absence I will endeavor to conduct this meeting. 

The first speaker will be Mr. David E. Goldfarb. I would like to ask the speakers 
to confine themselves to about ten minutes, because there are to be quite a number of 
speakers to-night. 

Mr. David E. Goldfarb — Mr. Chairman and members of the Committee of Welfare 
of the Board of Aldermen: I am not one of the speakers, but I feel that I ought 
to say something concerning this meeting. I want to first, on behalf of the Local 
School Board, and on behalf of the several parents' associations of this district, and 
in my own behalf, as a parent of -a pupil attending one of the schools of this district, 
to thank the Board for their presence here this evening, and in granting us the hear- 
ing for Washington Heights especially. 

I feel that Washington Heights ought to be heard, because of its rather peculiar 
geographical situation with respect to the rest of the city, and as everyone knows, 
Washington Heights has a very large population. I understand from the last reliable 
reports a quarter' of a million, and with its high assessed valuation it ought to have 
all of the educational facilities such as a city equivalent in size and in assessed 
valuation should have. 

For that purpose I called upon the various members of the parents' associations 
and had an informal meeting, and we asked them to set forth a program to express 
their views. This was done, and the views will be expressed in probably three sub- 
divisions ; one, on school buildings, improvements and repairs, and the other will be 
on scholastic instruction. That will take in, of course^ the Gary system or the 



198 

duplicate system, and anything at all that may be helpful in that line; and the third, 
fourth, a very important thing, that interests many citizens of Washington Heights, 
the subject of high schools. I think there are a number of members represeting the 
various associations here to-night, and I think you will hear from them their views, 
and I feel certain that the views expressed by them are the views that have been 
enunciated at the various parents associations. 

I thank you (applause). 

Alderman Collins — Hon. W. Simpson. 

Hon. George W. Simpson — Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen : I seem to have 
the honor of being the first speaker. I consider it an honor and a privilege to talk 
in behalf of a modern high school for Washington Heights, and I am not going to 
take but my ten minutes in order to be fair to the other speakers, and although it 
may seem just a little bit dry, it is my duty, nevertheless, to quote some figures to 
you, because it is still true, I think, although it sometimes it may not be considered 
so, but it is still true that as a general rule figures do not lie. To see is to believe, 
and if I had not seen and actually gone through the little bit of an old-fashioned school, 
sixty years old, 1857, erected, is the first thing you see as you go in that little place 
at Academy Street and Broadway, used as a high school for Washington Heights, 
with a population of 271.000 people, I would not have believed it was possible that the 
Board of Education of the City of New York, with $42,000,000, would have permitted 
such an outrage to have been foisted upon the people of Washington Heights 
(applause), and I am very glad, very glad, indeed, that the Board of Aldermen, 
our city fathers.and in fact the ones who are closest to the people, the ones who 
i pond to the pulse of the people to-day as they have in the past, I am very glad 
that they appointed this committee on General Welfare, because I feel certain that, 
whatever else you may do, gentlemen, and I have the honor of an acquaintance of some 
members of this committee, whatever else you may do, I feel certain that after I have 
given you jusl the few figures and few facts that 1 intend to give you in a moment, 
that you will make a recommendation that Washington Heights, above every other 
part of the City of New York, is entitled as a matter of right, to a modern high 
school (applause). 

Now, just let me, without boring you, go quickly over some figures These figures 
are given to me from the Division of Reference and Research of the Board of Educa- 
tion. They are authentic. 

2,969 children, gentlemen, live above 135th street, between the Hudson and Har- 
lem rivers, in the Borough of Manhattan, and those 2,969 children attend the following 
high schools: 360 boys go to DeWitt Clinton, 174 go to Stuyvesant, 167 go to Com- 
merce High School, and 120 to Annex of Public School 58, and 169 to Annex of 
Public School 67 ; 55 girls go to the general course and 74 in the commercial course ; 
64 in the technical course go to Washington Irving, 36 to Julia Richmond, and the 
Public Annex No. 9, 125; and to Wadleigh we have 492 going in one division and 
60 in the technical division ; that is 460 in the general, 60 in the technical, or 552 going 
down to Wadleigh High School, the girls. 

!n order to get there, of course, they have to go early in the morning. They 
have to go with the line of traffic. They have to be subjected to the crowded, indecent 
crowding in the subways. That in itself is an argument that ought to appeal, and I 
am sure will appeal, to have all these girls go with the line of traffic in the morning 
down to Wadleigh High School, alone, outside of any other consideration. We have 
others going to Evandcr Childs, 11 ; 182 to Hunter; 367 to Townsend Harris, making a 
grand total of 2.969 children, all living above 135th street, between the Harlem and 
the Hudson rivers, who have to go to these various high schools all over the City of 
New York, way down to Stuyvesant, DeWitt Clinton, and others, in order to get 
what they are entitled to, and yet which they cannot receive on Washington Heights, 
and, mind you, when I am speaking of Washington Heights, gentlemen, I am speak- 



199 

ing of Inwood and Marble Hill and all these sections up here that tend to make this 
great section the great community that it is. 

Now, what have we got at Broadway and Academy street? Why, we have an 
annex, the Morris High School in the Bronx. We have a school where there are 
346 children at present. The seating capacity is 596, 38 of which are used for type- 
writing, and 82 to be deducted in the Fall to make gymnasium work possible, which 
will give 514 seats. What is the full attendance? As near as I can figure it up, as 
figured by the principal and by others in the school who have good reason for their 
figures. 900 children. 

The farthest point north is the northern boundary of the city, and the farthest 
point south is 43d street. The general attendance comes from 110th street up and 
east as far as the Grand Concourse in the Bronx. 

The distance we have to go : the main building, the Morris High School, is 5 
miles, Evander Childs 6 miles, Wadleigh 5 miles, Washington Irving 10 miles, Julia 
Richmond 10 miles, DeWitt Clinton 7j4 miles and Stuyvesant 10 miles. 

The total school population of Washington Heights is about 30,000. From that, 
as you have seen, 2,969 children attend high school at the present time. To see how 
we are treated, let us look at some little places. I was to a place called Albany for 
four years, representing this district. Albany at the last census had 100.263 persons 
only and they had two high schools. Here we have one ; Rochester, 218,149, two 
high schools ; one normal school ; Trenton, less than 100,000, one high school and one 
normal school, which gives a high school course ; Syracuse, 137,249, three high schools ; 
Buffalo, 460.000, six high schools and one normal school, and Worcester, 145,000 
population, with three high schools. 

Let us look at the present building and see whether we can use it. There are 
some drawbacks I jotted down: 

Toilets on the playground floor, right opposite the study room ; old-fashioned 
toilets, flushing every 15 minutes; odor clearly obnoxious and penetrating; class room 
right opposite; an old-fashioned wooden building, in violation of the law as far as 
access and egress to and from the building are concerned, violated every day. Why? 

No place to hang overcoats and hats, only on hooks in open view of the class 
room, in the aisles and on the stairways. 

At one turn in the stairway there are probably 20 to 30 hats and coats hung 
up, and I am told it is the only place they have. What they have got besides that 
is two little vaudeville buildings, with a stove in each, either too hot or too cold 
all the time, a regular old-fashioned little red country school house that you have 
heard about. And how does it affect the children? Well, the other morning I 
was up there in the music class — one of these rooms is used for a music class, 
and the girls were trying to perform the gymnasium exercises in between the side 
seats and aisles in this room used for a music class. The gymnasium class being too 
large for this room, part of it i-s held at one time, and then they are dismissed, and 
part at another, and then it is sometimes held in the adjoining yard of the school 
to the detriment of other classes, which have to go away when this other division 
of the gymnasium class goes in. 

The seats for boys and girls are only large enough for a child about 10 years 
of age, and they are sitting with their knees cramped up. In many of the classes 
extra chairs are along the side. 

These are conditions that I saw the other morning, last Friday morning, and 
others who were with me may corroborate all that I have said on the subject 
of the unfitness and unsanitary condition, of danger, and then of course, in addition 
to all that, the Regents require of course, certain sciences to be taught, biology, 
chemistry and physics. How can they get along without a laboratory, and yet there 
is not a laboratory there, and those subjects are subjects they are bound to be 
examined in. They are part of the curriculum, and yet there is denied to them the 



200 

opportunity to study under proper conditions, because of the lack of laboratories. 
Of course, they would be unfit to pass the examinations when the Board of Regents 
takes up the subject, and those children who want to go ahead, who are entitled 
to go ahead, who have the sacred right to a free education in a free country 
like this, one of the basic principles of this government, they are unable to receive 
that which they are entitled to receive, because it has not been impressed upon the 
Board of Education, apparently to the extent that it should be, that we are 
entitled to a modern high school; and what I have said about this school is to 
emphasize and to bring to your minds that it is utterly unfit to be used as a high 
school for the purpose that it is used and for the purpose that it should be used, 
in order to bring out a modern system of teaching that is required and which is 
a matter of justice to each child. 

I merely want to say in conclusion that we think, and I should be very glad 
to submit these figures to you gentlemen, because I know they are hard to remember 
and figures always are uninteresting, but I submit to you, gentlemen, that these 
arguments, these conditions that exist are such as to make it ridiculous for us to 
have this condition existing one minute longer. We have a Board of Education. 
We pay an enormous amount for taxes in this district, some of the most valuable 
properties in the City of New York are in this district, this great big district 
starting at 135th Street and running up to the boundary line of the Bronx, between 
the Harlem and the Hudson Rivers. 

We are entitled to a high school and I say that with all due deference to the 
claims made in behalf of Flatbush and Brownsville. We were here and we were 
a community before they were known, and yet they contend and they presume and 
aver, and they claim that they have a prior right to a high school to that of 
Washington Heights. I say the claim has no foundation in fact. It should be 
ignored, and, gentlemen, let me say that the people of Washington Heights have 
confidence in you and in your committee. We believe that you are sitting here and 
that your other members who cannot be here tonight, or who may be here a little 
bit late, we believe that every man on the Committee of the General Welfare of tfte 
Board of Alderman intends to do the right and the fair thing, and that is all we 
ask. Do what your conscience tells you you should do. Distribute that fair and 
equal and exact justice to the people of this great community that they are entitled 
to. Weigh carefully the facts and the figures that I have touched upon and which 
arc more in detail in this statement that I have given you and which I will file 
with you, with your permission, and give the people of Washington Heights a 
modern high school. 

Your recommendation will b& sufficient. I am sure the Board of Education 
are looking up to you, because you have been in touch with the people, just as 
you are tonight, right there in front of you, and they have looked to you and 
heard your argument, and followed your course throughout the City, and we admire 
it. You make a recommendation and I am sure it will have the weight with the 
Board of Education that it is entitled to and that we will get the relief that we 
want, (applausd). 

Alderman Collins — You will appreciate that this Board of Aldermen can only 
recommend in a situation like that? 

Mr. Simpson — 1 do, but I think a great deal of their recommendation. 

Alderman Collins — We cannot give you a high school, but we may recommend it. 

Mr. Simpson — And it is your recommendation that we seek. 

Alderman Collins— Mrs. Joseph 1). Hamburger. Public School 186. 

Mrs. Joseph 1). Hamburger — I have been delegated as a member of the Parents 
Association of Alexander Hamilton P. S. 186 to speak to you on the subject of 
repairs which are necessary in this building, and when I was first requested to speak 



201 

on this subject I demurred as being the only lady speaker I was a little modest, but 
after considering that I am a housekeeper, and the repairs naturally come under the 
head of housekeeping, I feel quite fit to speak upon the subject. 

None of us think of going from year to year, living on in a house, a home, 
an apartment, a dwelling place where we spend most of our time, without immedi- 
ately caring for the repairs and keeping our place up to date, keeping our house 
in order. It seems to me that it is one of the last considerations which is given 
attention by those who have the right to give the order for repairs. My first 
subject is a most unpleasant one. When one enters school — the school on 145th 
Street, they are struck with an unspeakably disagreeable odor. This comes from 
the lavatories. We have been told that this odor is not unhealthful, and so it seems 
as though it is perfectly all right for the children to go on day after day breathing 
in this atmosphere. 

I live close in the vicinity of a stable. I think the stable was four blocks away, 
and we are told that people in delicate health are sent to the vicinity of stables, 
that it is healthy, but I want you to know that healthy people do not enjoy the 
odors that come from stables. I think that there is not a mother or a father who 
would sit for one whole day in the atmosphere that prevails in this school. It 
is a disgrace. I think it is a menace to the manhood and womanhood of our 
children. Why, what standards can we expect of children who are brought up 
to believe that such a condition is all right? 

I maintain that it is all wrong. The lavatories in this building are obsolete today. 
They are not permitted to be installed in tenement houses today. They are abso- 
lutely unfitted: They are not in the position that they should be, in the first place. 
They are in the center of the building where there is no direct outlet or inlet of air. 

I could go on in detail, but I feel that just the little I have recited is enough on 
this subject to convince you that something radical should be done to improve this 
condition. 

We very much need in our school building an auditorium. It really is needed in 
every school building. The idea that it was not put there when the building was 
erected is no reason that it should not be supplied now that there is a demand for 
such an addition. It it not enough to put up the school buildings. They must be kept 
up to date, and the thought struck me as I was considering this subject, that if a 
moving picture company would take pictures of all the modern school buildings that 
have been put up within the last fifteen years in every good sized city in the United 
States, the interior, the exterior, the modern equipment, and put them side by side 
with the New York school buildings, you would blush with shame. (Applause.) 

Our children deserve the best that the City of New York can give them. They 
are the coming rulers of the nation. Why should anything, any condition be good 
enough for our children? A building, desks, supplies and all most inadequate for 
the leading city of the United States, and that is what we think is worthy. Should 
they not rule in this one feature as they strive to rule in all others? 

Now, this auditorium would meet so many needs as a community center where 
we could have our lectures, where we could have all kinds of public exercises, where 
not only for special community needs, political needs, anything that we want, some 
sort of a meeting place. As it happens, we meet in the library auditorium, which 
has a capacity of only 200. In our school the assembly room is divided up into school 
rooms. It seats a little over 200 — I think about 230 or 240. Well, last year in Feb- 
ruary, the graduating class numbered 207. The room holds about 240. This would 
not even allow any parents of this graduating class to be present. 

Chairman Robitzek— That is P. S. 186? 

Mrs. Hamburger — Yes. In order to graduate and have the parents present it 
was given these children the choice of graduating in the assembly room just by them- 



202 

selves or hiring and paying for this room themselves. Is this just? Is this as it 
should be? These children, each one, were taxed for the privilege of being able to 
have their parents see them graduate. 

Now, in the school, I went through the corridors and I saw that the paint had 
been laid on, as I imagine Tom Sawyer and his friends would have splashed it on 
if they had been engaged to have a happy day, as I show you (indicating), the paint 
was thrown on in this fashion — one slap here, one slap there, one slap there, one 
slap there. I never saw anything so disgraceful. 

Furthermore, part of the hallways are tan. They must have run out of tan paint 
because the rest of them are green. It matters not. It is just the children's school 
building. I here am appealing to the sense of pride in the parents that our children's 
home where they spend the most of their day should be as carefully renovated, pre- 
pared and kept up to date as the homes in which they live. 

There is a place where the doors which separate the assembly rooms from the 
other rooms are rolled back, and from this constant rolling against the rails these 
doors have jarred the plaster. I do not wish to exaggerate and I have not exactly 
the figures, but I think it is a year since this large piece of plaster has been noticed 
lacking in the ceiling and in the corner of the wall, and if a piece large enough falls 
and injures somebody, then radical measures may be taken to repair this; but no 
child has yet been killed. 

The children have complained of being cold on windy days especially. The 
janitor has been rebuked many times for using too much coal; much more coal than is 
necessary, it seems. You know we cannot heat out of doors and the windows are 
the old-fashioned kind that push outwards, so that when they are closed they must 
necessarily be loose, so that they cannot fit tight, in order to allow for this pushing 
out : and when there is a wind they shake, and when there is a wind it only blows 
in. If that little repairing were done I think you would find there would be many 
thousands of dollars saved in the coal bill. 

Chairman Robitzek— Pardon me. Where is the school you are alluding to — 
Alexander Hamilton. 145th Street? 

Mr--. Hamburger — Alexander Hamilton. 145th Street. As just a last word, and it 
may be just a little out of order just now. but I want to make an appeal to the 
parents in regard to the confidence which they place in the teachers and in the prin- 
cipals of the schools. You know there is no head of any institution who can do 
justice to himself and those under him unless he knows that implicit confidence is 
placed in him, and many a parent listens to the little complaints of the children, and 
immediately take it up to the classroom without allowing the principal and the teacher 
to work that problem out for themselves. As a mother of three children I know that 
I have my hands quite full in making the children feel that I am always doing 
justice. What must one teacher, who has forty, forty-five or fifty children have to 
contend with? So I make this plea to you that unless you know great injustice is 
done to your child, remember that the principal is there and has been selected for 
this position because he is fitted. Otherwise, he would not be there. 

I thank you. ( Applause. ) 

Chairman Robitzek — The next speaker will lie Mr. Sherman Moulton, of Public 
School 132. ( Applause.) 

Mr. J. Sherman Moulton — Mr. President, Mr. Chairman, rather, Ladies and 
Gentlemen: I think that the first thing that we ought to take up is the matter of 
gondolas in this district. In my passage coming over here tonight they would have 
helped. 

Chairman Robitzek — We came here from Albany. 

Mr. Moulton — You might say we were in a gondola. There is a great difference 
in going around the corners. 

I have bad 10 years' experience. I take it from a remark made that there is- 



203 

absolute harmony on the question of conditions in Washington Heights. Of course, 
if there is not, I might say something that might hurt some one's feelings. I would 
not do that for the world. 

One of the speakers, I think the preceding lady, spoke about the annex for public 
schools I might say I have had the honor of being president of a parents association 
in this school for the past eight years, and they finally put me out, but she spoke 
about wanting an annex. This is the annex and we got it just three years before the 
highest bid was made. The parents association went out, the members and their 
wives, and we got this annex, and it was actually so, that we would not have got 
it for three years, but we got it and got busy and went down to the City Hall with a 
big scissors and cut that red tape and got a bid. 

We want that high school, and if the association from 137th Street up to Inwood 
will join with us, we are egotistical enough to think they will join us, we will have a 
high school, and it will not be a portable house, it will be a high school that anybody 
could be proud of. 

The figures the Senate gave us were very valuable. I did not think that condition 
could exist even in a civilized territory, let alone an uncivilized territory. The truth 
is there is too much red tape. I want to say the Board of Aldermen have always 
done everything they could to aid us. This is not a baseball game between me and 
the Board of Education, but I have always gone to the bat and have always said that 
there is the trouble. I have had personal experience, been before the Mayor, I don't 
mean this Mayor, and there was very little trouble after he got started. Every 
courtesy was accorded us, but in the meantime, the Board of Aldermen came in and 
cut the red tape and gave us the bonds necessary to build this annex. Every once 
in a while I would be passing here and a man would be laying a brick on the roof. 
We came around here for 10 days, and this is an actual fact, gentlemen, the material 
was laying out there, one man on four walls of this building, and there were 90 
brick laid in 10 days. That is a fact. 

Chairman Robitzek — He was a good bricklayer. 

Mr. Moulton — He was a good bricklayer for himself. We thought we would see 
if we could not get some more brick laid. We tried to find out his name and we 
did and we published it. We advertised it to everybody. We wanted them to know 
what a magnificent builder he was, so he could get no further contracts from the 
Board of Education for building high schools. 

Chairman Robitzek — Have you suggested to the Board of Education any particular 
location for available high schools, or anywhere north of 135th Street right up to 
the City line? 

Mr. Moulton — No, I have not. 

Chairman Robitzek — Have you suggested to the Board of Education any particular 
location for available high schools, or anywhere north of 135th Street right up to 
the City line? 

Mr. Moulton — No, I have not. 

Chairman Robitzek — We are not looking at locations, except vicinities. 

Mr. Moulton — No, I do not think I have taken it up or any member of my 
committee. Probably they can answer that better than I can. 

Chairman Robitzek — The nearest high school I take it is about six or eight miles 
away. 

Mr. Moulton — Yes. 

Chairman Robitzek — The next speaker will be Mr. Emanuel Hertz, of Public 
School 186. 

Mr. Emanuel Hertz — Members of the Board of Aldermen, Ladies and Gentlemen: 
I wish the Alderman had read the title of my speech, my address, which is Scholas- 
ticism and the Gary School, and if I was to discuss scholasticism in 10 minutes I 
would be undertaking a greater, task than is undertaken now by some very patriotic 



204 

citizens of New York in presenting this great community with the Gary system, but 
I have decided to dissect my subject and talk about the subject nearest and dearest 
to my heart, and no doubt to your hearts, the Gary system in the public schools. 

Some 250 years ago, ladies and gentlemen, a few shepherd rovers, about two or 
three thousand of them, took it into their head and marched into the city of Pekin, 
the old empire of China, walked into the Holy City, took possession of the Imperial 
Palace, deposed the dynasty which had been in power for seven hundred years, estab- 
lished their chieftain as emperor of China, remained in China for 250 years, and to 
show their contempt for the 400,000.000 or 500.000,000 Chinamen, for there was always 
that many at least, they ordered every male Chinaman to shave the top of his head 
and wear that ornament known as a que to designate him from the others and to show 
their contempt for the Manchus, that was the family that took possession, they held 
them in, and they did that for 250 years until the great giant arose, and the last 
of the Manchu emperors, a little boy two years old, was chased out of the imperial 
palace into oblivion. 

We have always been laughing at China, but China discovered printing 2,000 or 
4,000 years before we, and invented silk 2,000 or 4,000 years before us, we are 
always laughing at that, and in this last year of grace there came out of a city 
situated equally distant almost from the Chicago stock yards and from the Ford 
factory in Detroit, there forth a gentleman to the City of New York. He picked 
out the richest spot on this continent and he desires to install a system which he 
thinks is perfect, it was tried in two or three little towns where everybody knows 
everybody else and where no new idea has been born in the last 250 years. He wants 
to install in this great imperial city an experiment on 850,000 children. Compared 
in that the problems of Mrs. Hamburger and Senator Simpson, in getting a new high 

ol, appear insignificant. We ought to know something about the wonderful 
system which has taken possession of our City administration. They go as far as 
possible. The Mayor and the Committee of the Board of Education go to Gary, eight 
or nine years old. springing from a swamp, a valley on one of the lakes and bogs, 
four or five thousand individuals in it, including the policemen, goats and horses, 
and because it works in that community, ergo therefore it follows as day follows night 
that it must be applicable to the great City of New York. 

The Mayor, with a budget of $220,000,000, and the Comptroller, that perpetual, 

living, walking peroration, they hie themselves westward and examine that with 

'ins and microscopes, examine the teeth of the childr°n in Gary, and come 

back and report it is a wonderful system. It is what 800,000 children in the City 

of Now York want. They want it right away, and forthwith they put in at Public 

School -15 in the Bronx, in the Italian section, and Public School 189. in Brooklyn. 

don't say much about that part of that experiment. They brought their 

Superintendent Wirt from Gar) and employed him one week out of four, and gave 

him $10,000. and the other three weeks he lectured the teachers about the Gary 

system at the rate of $5 per, and considering 3,000 teachers threatened with having 

( .in) foisted upon them, most of them had to go to those lectures and pay the fee. 

I think I struck a responsive chord. The lives are gone. That is the fact. I have 

nothing against the man. He is a school principal. That is nothing, but in order 

to convince you that the man is a man with a purpose, the man posed in the photo- 

i which he scattered all o\ er the world, observing the workings of the great 

5) stem in his school. 

Xow, then, there are some important facts to remember in regard to that system. 
The system depends upon periods. It is divided into period. The periods are divided 
up. The periods are divided by the sound of a tremendous gong and when 
that gong sounds the whole school moves. The whole school moves. It is a moving 
day school (applause), with the books, with the clothing and with the umbrellas. In 



205 

rain and shine, without gondolas, without boats, in spite of drafts, in spite of heat 
and in spite of cold, the children move, and they move ten times a day. That is the 
principal thing about it. I do not know whether he got it from the stock yards or 
the Ford factory, because over in the stock yards there is a long pen. First he goes 
here, then there, and then at the end of a long platform he comes out sizzling, 
ready to fall upon his hind legs, but remember the porker is dead at the con- 
clusion of that. 

Mr. Henry Ford has instituted the quaint system of manufacturing automobiles. 
He starts at some end and then moves along, and before it is two or three hours 
older, every workman has done something, tightened something, and finishes it. That 
is the complete article, the Ford machine. The Ford machine I don't want to say 
anything about, it is a useful article, but as Depew says, it is like a bad tub, we 
all use it but we are ashamed to be seen in it. When you have got that made 
imagine what you have got, a Ford machine, you have got something, one that 
four out of every five, every newsboy, every barber, everybody has got. What 
have you got? A Chinaman in the form of a machine. 'J. here are 40l),000,000 all 
alike; all Ford machines are all alike. Although they tell you it is the vintage of 
1917 and WU1, they are all alike. 

That is exactly what they are trying to do with the 800,000 children in Greater 
New \ork, Chinafy them; the child must be a sculptor; the child must be an 
artist; the child must be a farmer; it takes a teacher six months to learn a little 
class of 40 or 50, and to thoroughly know the 40 or 50 of them in the few minutes 
in the periods between the gongs is impossible. 

The poor man has got to teach three or four hundred every day during ten 
periods. How is it possible unless he or she is as great as William Wirt himself to 
know these three hundred or four hundred children as they pass in quick review, 
which is at the bottom of every Wirt system. 

A little costs. We cannot afford a new school here for $250,000, and when we 
went down on a trip the Mayor said he only could have two or three hundred thou- 
sand dollars in the Emergency Fund. I will come back to Flatbush and Brownsville 
in a little while and tell you why we don't get the money we need, but they can give 
$150,000 on the Wirt plan in Grammar School 45. 

I have filled myself with Gary stuff this evening and I give you the figures as 
they come from public school reports, experts' reports, and there are about 600 of 
them; 600 times 150 is a small bagatelle of $90,000,000. $90,000,000 to repair and 
change the schools and make them fit for the system. Why such a great outlay for 
an experiment? For that is all it is, because Mr. Superintendent John S. Taylor of 
the Board of Education, when examined as to the wonderful school, said it will take 
at least four years before we can reach a proper conclusion whether the experiment is 
right, whether the system is good or the system is not good, if we try to pass judg- 
ment on it before that time it is like the little boy who pulled out the seed which he 
had planted in the afternoon, he pulls it out the next morning to see whether the seed 
has started, so a small bagatelle of $90,000,000, an experiment on 800.000 children, we 
have to wait four years to see whether that system will work or not. (.Applause.) 

This is all right. This is talk. What is to be done? What is done in Flatbush 
if they want something? They accelerate public opinion. They publish circulars. 
They have a membership of 40,000 in Brownsville and a membership in Flatbush of 
60,000. I do not ask you to do that, but I ask you, to quote another old parable, the 
old emperor who 'lived in one of these ancient Roman villas, and was showered under 
tons and tons of roses until he choked under the force of them, and every resident 
of Washington Heights can write a postcard to assist these members of the Board of 
Aldermen, write one postal card, 250,000 of them, and write them, " Mr. Mayor, we 
don't want the Gary system." (Applause.) Don't you think they will pay attention? 



206 

Don't you think they will listen to you? If they won't listen to 250,000 appeals, those 
250,000 appeals will change the 250,000 demand, and when the women get their votes, 
God bless them, they will get it this year, it will be 500,000, and then do you doubt that 
Washington Heights will get a high school, or the odors will be dispensed with, and 
that we will have an assembly room and the Gary system will be sent back to wherever 
it belongs, and that the 15,000 teachers who have been overruled and bullied and 
bossed, with new programs and with new this and that and new ideas, and with 
everything and anything but more grammar, the study of history, arithmetic and 
geography, which we studied so much, and not with pottery, sculpture and everything 
in the world except what they should have? Can you imagine what would become of 
Franklin and Garfield and Lincoln and Woodrow Wilson, if they had come from this 
new system and not from the other system ? Franklin didn't have any such things as 
they are trying now, and Lincoln was a rail splitter, and they have got a whole system 
of phraseology which means nothing, which simply deceives; the mere fact it has. 
the support of every wild-eyed, long-haired, be-whiskered demagogue is enough to 
damn it without reservation. (Applause.) 

Chairman Kobitzek — Mr. Myer C. Goldman, ex-president of Parents' Association 
of Public School 46. 

(Not present.) 

Chairman Robitzek — Mr. Albert A. Twaddel, Public School 46. 

Mr. Albert A. Twaddel — There is only one thing that I think I can speak upon 
tonight in regard to Public School 46, and that is the sanitary condition. We have 
toilets built something like 40 years ago, possibly. For twenty years they have been 
patched up until a year ago, then only repaired after considerable pounding at the 
Board of Education. We have asked again to have new equipment put in there. All 
the repairs that have been put in since are patch work. We have asked for new 
repairs, new equipment entirely. They come back and they say they have not the 
funds to do it with. We have asked them to include in their budget for the coming 
year, and they come back and say there are no funds. If my recollection is correct, 
at the hearing of the Public Service investigation there were several bonuses granted 
to traction heads here which arc ultimately to be paid for by the City of New York. 
If they have not got the funds, why not? Has the city got to pay bonuses to traction 
heads and not to put the schools in sanitary condition? 

The last item that we have heard from them is that they are going to put in a 
small shed running from the main building to the toilet building, and that is as far 
as they are willing to go at the present time. The fundamental trouble is at the roots. 
The Board of Education as it exists today is radically wrong and we will not benefit 
it or change it in any way until we have an elective board. Today a certain party is 
appointed. His views are sounded beforehand and he is merely a rubber stamp. If 
we have an elective board with individuals who will not listen to reason, they can be 
removed at the next election and I believe also if we have an elective board it should 
be made a County board. Each County should support its own schools. Each County 
should have its own board and then we can remedy matters. We won't have to plead 
for a high school on Washington Heights and go without it because Flatbush wants 
one. We can have it and the Borough of Manhattan can pay for it and not have to 
put one down on Staten Island where there is plenty of space and we are cramped 
for it. 

At the present time there is a bill that passed Albany and is now waiting for the 
Governor's signature. I personally endeavored to have that amended so we would 
have an elective board. The answer was the present legislation was only intended to 
codify the laws of the State, which was a mere sop. They did not want to change the 
system only, as the gentleman said tonight, because they want to put in the Gary 
system. With a seven headed board we will have the Gary system right from the start, 
commencing next year. 



207 

Chairman Robitzek — Mr. David M. Jones, President of Parents' Association 
P. S. 132. 

Mr. David M. Jones — Mr. Chairman and members of the various parents associa- 
tions, after the wonderful developments which we had a few moments before, I feel 
almost powerless to say anything at all about the cost of schools on the Heights in 
this particular district. So much has been said in the way of pointing out what we 
need and so much has been said about the faults of the Gary system, that possibly I 
will just confine myself to one thing that came to me, and that is I think along the 
line of this hearing, and that is the failure of the authorities to inquire into the possible 
means of meeting the difficulties which arise from time to time. I may say I have 
had a little experience right here in the enlargement of this building. We ran across 
all sorts of difficulties. First, it was in getting the appropriation. Many of you know 
the difficulty we had in getting it, in getting the work started, getting the excavation, 
getting a few brick started, the brickwork started. Many of you saw pictures of a 
few men working. Many of you know how at times they stopped. There were front 
brick missing. They stopped three days because ordinary brick was missing. And 
then thej' stopped again because certain material did not arrive. The thought came to 
me as I ran across these things that there is something lacking when no one in 
authority inquires into the cause of these delays and then takes measures to prevent 
them. Then as I have watched the wonderful growth of this section — I might say I 
am almost a pioneer up here. I wondered why some one did not consult plans as they 
were filed in the Tenement House and Building Department and notice the wonderful 
possibilities of this section. They must have realized thousands and thousands of 
people were coming to this neighborhood. Yet what was done in order to provide 
proper accommodation for boys and girls, in order to provide a proper high school 
for this section? Just think of it, all the territory from Yonkers line down to 59th. 
Street, in which is included Townsend Harris, all this great west side, and no provi- 
sion made at all for the boys and girls of this section. 

There is one woman here to-day whose son, and maybe there are other fcoys, 
and girls who have done the same thing, but I know there is one boy in this school 
who after he was graduated here was compelled to leave his home at seven o'fclock 
every morning to get down to Stuyvesant High School. I ask if that is right? It 
is hardly necessary to ask you. You know it is not right. So I say there should 
have been some one who should have provided for that. They should have 
provided for this great growth. We have a temporary school annex only, and I 
understand that has become overcrowded. We know there are not sufficient ac- 
commodations in the different schools for all the city. Gentlemen, we want (to 
include all the pupils, all the high school boys and girls, so we must have some one 
to look after possibilities for temporary accommodations at least. I am no prophet. 
I don't pose as an expert, but in looking around it struck me there might be a 
solution of the problem of a high school, of seating high school and many elementary 
pupils. I offer this to you and if you see fit to make the investigation of this, why 
not make it in this committee? In other words, my first proposition is this: It 
is contrary to law, but I am going to make it: Down in 161st Street there is a 
large wooden structure which is built contrary to law. I mean to say against the 
Building Code. It is a wooden structure within the fire limits, but it is a structure 
built for the good of the community, that is for a religious purpose. Now, I am 
no school expert, and I cannot say whether I am right or wrong, but I cannot see why 
there can't be fireproof partitions erected in the structure and dividing that Sntd 
class rooms, which accommodate elementary pupils and also high school pupils : put 
fireproof walls in there, which would stop the progress of any fire, and all the 
pupils will be on the ground floor and there will be a lateral exit which is always- 
preferable to a vertical exit. If 20,000 can assemble in such a building without dan- 



208 

ger, because the Fire Department would not permit its assembly, I do, not see why 
20,000 could not be accommodated there by installing heating* facilities and the 
children would have outside ventilation and have the benefit of perfect direct ven- 
tilation, without any trouble at all and no unsanitary conditions at all. 

Furthermore, there would be a large playground and a covered drill hall for the 
children. You kno.w that drilling will be a permanent feature in the school routine 
and there they have a covered playground where the children could be drilled and 
you could get exercises and also have accommodation for the class room. I simply 
offer this and if the school board wish to look into it they may figure out the cost. 

Some one may say why should I offer some one else's property, but 1 might say 
this, in view of the extraordinary cost of materials and almost impossible — it is almost 
impossible to get steel for construction work, I might say it is not possible at all that 
any buildings at all will be erected, any apartment houses of any size within the next 
year or two. There will be very few erected in Manhattan. That ground down there 
1 imagine will not be used for the purpose of erecting apartment houses. Therefore 
if the city could arrange to use that property and remit the taxes — I do not know 
whether it is just right to propose this on the property owners, in consideration of 
that fact they may give the use of the property for two or three years, and the 
people who contributed the money for the erection of that structure may be willing 
to allow that structure to remain for the benefit of boys and girls, just as they are 
willing to let it stand there for the benefit of men and women. I do not see why 
we could not come to some basis of agreement by which we could meet these 
conditions. 

Furthermore, if the City of New York is too poor to give away money to erect 
a temporary fire wall, or terra cotta or cement and concrete, there certainly ought to 
be enough people on Washington Heights to reach down in their pockets and give a 
dollar apiece, and we can get enough money to pay for those fire walls. 

Chairman Robitzek— Doctor Herman S. Piatt, Principal of P. S. 46. 

Doctor Herman S. Piatt— Members of the Board of Aldermen, Ladies and Gentle- 
men: 1 was told that 1 was to say something about the Gary system. It seems to 
me that that has already been pretty thoroughly ventilated, and after the admirable 
treatment of it by one of my predecessors for me to make a speech upon the Gary 
system would be a good deal like taking a friend to the Ritz Carlton for dinner 
and then afterwards offering him a dill pickle. 

I think the question of the introduction of the Gary system for this district at 
least is purely an academic one. I do nut think it has very much practical importance. 
I think the putting into proper hygienic conditions of the schools as they are, and 
the question of the high school, are the big things before Washington Heights. There 
is just this one thing in connection with the Gary System that I am going to say, 
and it won't lake me very long. There is not very much danger of the Gary System 
being put into any New York schools, at least very generally introduced into New 
York, for the' reason that the real Gary School is an exceedingly expensive propo- 
sition. It may interest you to know that all of the schools are Garyized, by the 
way. Visitors arc not taken to all the schools of Gary, but without going into the 
details of the Gary plan, with which I take it you are familiar, in general outline at 
least, to put the schools of New York City upon a real Gary basis would cost very 
much more than to build all of the needed school buildings. 

Now. the danger that you parents have to face and the thing that you have to be 
alert about is, not the clanger of the real introduction of the real Gary System, but 
the putting of two classes into one classroom and calling it the Gary plan, and con- 
cealing a vicious organization under a title that has won a certain amount of approval. 
A thing does not become a thing by calling it a thing and putting two classes into one 
classroom and saying we have got the Gary System, that is not having the Gary 
System, and that is the thing we have got to watch. 



zoy 

I do not believe that anyone who knows anything about school organization, who 
knows anything about education, really believes that the duplication and the depart- 
mentalization of the instruction of public schools for children from six years on is 
a good thing for the children, and I can illustrate that in a way that will perhaps 
make it more vivid. 

You must remember that a school for the child is very much more than a certain 
series of lessons. An education is very much broader than studying out of a book 
and reciting to the teacher. The school to the child is the larger part of his life 
and the best part of his education is got in school, probably not out of the. text- 
book. It is the life of the school, the spirit of the school, the atmosphere of the school. 
The influence of the school really makes the best part of his education rather than 
the lessons. Just imagine. Let us take a large apartment house on the Heights. 
They say that by duplicating the organization of the school we can save classrooms. 
They used to say that we could save teachers. They do not say that any more, because 
it has been discovered in the schools which have been Garyized they have just as many 
teachers as before. School 45 in the Bronx, when I visited it, had 175, and School 45 
a year before when I visited it had 175, so they do not save teachers. 

They say it can save classes. You may save on your apartment rent in the same 
way if you wanted to. Suppose we duplicated families in the apartment house, and 
it could be done. On Monday afternoon Mrs. Jones always goes shopping so Mrs. 
Brown goes into that apartment and possibly Tuesday morning the Smiths go away 
over to New Jersey and see their brother-in-law and Jones goes in and by that time 
the Browns would go some place else and the Smiths would go in the apartment. 
That sounds absurd, but that is exactly what duplicating in the school means. There 
is no life. You have your apartment and you could save rent in that way, but what 
would you want to do? Would you want to do it? Would you want to organize your 
life on the duplicate system? Then don't allow any influence or any power to compel 
the organization of your child's educational life on that system, because there is 
just as little reality, there is just as little life, there is just as little spirit in that or- 
ganization in school as it would be in the apartment house. So I just leave that word 
with you. Look out for any plan of simply doubling the number of classes in a 
building and saying, Lo ! we have the Gary Plan. If you don't believe the Gary Plan 
is a beautiful thing, get out to Gary and see it in the Emerson School out there. 
(Applause.) 

Chairman Robitzek — Mr. Daniel W. Lenahan, President of Parents Association 
of P. S. 52. 

Mr. Daniel W. Lenahan — Mr. President, some six years ago in the Inwood section 
we started the agitation for a new elementary school, and after a while the school 
was built. The new school is completed and has been used for the past two years. 
The capacity of the school is 1,354 and to-day the register of the school is 1,354. 

So next Fall we expect to face the Gary plan, or the double sessions, either one, 
and from what we have heard of the Gary plan we do not want any part of it in 
P. S. 52, and we have had a siege of the Gary sessions. It was just like running, as 
one woman described it up there that had a family of children, running a railroad 
boarding house. Some were coming home at 10 o'clock, some were coming home at 
11, some were coming home at 12, and some at one to lunch, and she ran a continuous 
performance, and we do not want that started again this Fall. 

Last June District Superintendent Conroy made a survey of the neighborhood for 
a new site for a new school. He looked over the Inwood section, and I believe recom- 
mended the site to the Board of Education. Last Fall we sent a resolution from our 
associations to the local school boards and recited the need of a new school, the 
increase in the population up there and the large number of new buildings being 
erected. Nothing has been done, and next Fall we expect to see four or five hundred 
new children coming to our Public School 52. 



210 

Chairman Robitzek — What is the seating capacity there? 

Mr. Lenahan — 1.354, and the register to-day is 1.354. So in the Fall with all the 
now buildings that are being erected, we are face to face with the Gary double sessions 
plan. There is no school between this and School 52 and the distance is a little over 
a mile and a quarter. From P. S. 52 north there is no school for a mile and a half, 
and the section here to 52 is built up and is building rapidly and north of that it is 
building up rapidly, and the result is that parents living at a distance from 52, they 
have got to have children ride up on the street cars or ride down on the street cars, 
or up on the subway, or down on the subway, and it is a condition which ought not to 
exist. 

Chairman Robitzek — How far from the subway? 

M r. Lenahan — A mile and a half. We ought to have one school where the chil- 
dren can attend without having to pay car fare on a snowy day or a rainy day, and 
not alone that, the children are riding on automobiles and hitching on wagons on 
unt of the distance they are compelled to go up and down, with the result that 
ral of them have been injured and seriously injured. 

That Inwood section is being held back. The real estate people are not developing 
their property on account of the school going to be overcrowded. They figure that in 
the Fall with the double session plan on people will not move up there. 

lirman Robitzek — Is that the only thing that is holding Inwood back? 
Mr. Lenahan — That is one thing that is holding it back, a most serious thing. 

man Robitzek — That is a surprising statement. 
Mr. Lenahan — When the new school opens up the building operations will start 
again. 

Chairman Robitzek— As a rule over there in The Bronx the operators don't wait 

for the school. The scl 1 comes afterwards, with the building. 

Mr. Lenahan — They had buildings up there and they could not rent the apart- 
ments. People moved out of the neighborhood on account of not having schools 
anij the distance the children would have to travel, 
i hairman Robitzek— They are more particular. 

Mr. Lenahan— It may be so. We are a different class of people in Inwood. 
Chairman Robitzek— Mr. Henry Blumenstock, President of Parents Association 
I'. S. 169. 

Mr. Henry Blumenstock — I wish to say 

Chairman Robitzek— Have you anything new to submit? 

Mr. Blumenstock— The particular needs of P. S. 169. I had the pleasure of 
addressing you at the last meeting. This calls for the particular needs of Public 

Chairman Robitzek— I have no objection, except our record has it already, and • 
there is no use of duplicating. 

Mr. Blumenstock— This is entirely new matter. 

Chairman Robitzek— Because we hrve a rather expensive stenographic record. 

Mr. Blumenstock— Af the last meeting I addressed you on general matters. This 
pertains to the particular needs of P. S. 169. This school serves a district, Mr. Chair- 
man, Ladies and Gentlemen, bounded on the north side by 163d street, to the 
south side 173d strict, from river to river. This neighborhood is being rapidly built 
up to the present time, and we find that the following conditions exist in this school: 

There are 14 classes at the present on the double session plan, a total of 575 
pupils from 1A to 3A. To give an idea of the increase in the way, the number of 
new admissions to this school that have taken place in the past four years ?he 
principal of the school has favored me with this report: 

In the Fall of 1913 there were 153 new admissions; 1914, 209 new admissions; 1915. 
308 new admissions, and 1916, 216 new admissions. 



211 

The low number of admissions in 1916 is accounted for by the fear on the 
part of the parents of this infantile paralysis epidemic. 

So, gentlemen, you see exactly the conditions being faced in the district served 
by that school. The nearest one north to us is 115, already, I understand, over- 
crowded. The nearest one to the south of us is, I believe, Public School 46. I do not 
think they could take in any more. 

I simply beg to call the attention of your Honorable Board to this statement 
of affairs. We have not found any one in the past three years who will lend us their 
ear. We hope this will fall on friendly ears, and the recommendation will be 
submitted. 

Chairman Robitzek — Mr. George W. O'Brien, President of George Washington 
High School Association. 
(No response.) 

A Voice — If I may answer, he has promised to be here this evening and speak 
upon the matter of the high schools. I think as far as that subject is concerned, it 
has been amply covered by the other speakers. 

Chairman Robitzek — I have some other speakers here. I don't know whether they 
want to speak. The subject has been covered. I don't know what they want to say. 

Mrs. Kesner, Public School 132 — Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen : I think 
there is very little to be added after the enthusiasm shown by the preceding speakers, 
but as a member of Parents Association of 132, as well as a plain mother, I would like 
to add two words touching the need of a high school on Washington Heights. 

In these days most parents make great sacrifices in order to give their boys and 
girls at least a high school education, because it gives the young people a more firm 
footing as they go out into the world to establish their own lives. It really means a 
great effort to have to spend the money to complete a high school course if they 
live along Washington Heights. I could give a slight personal experience, but I am 
only one of 270,000, so it would be hardly appropriate. The schools are all over- 
crowded and it makes trying hours for bOys and girls as well as parents. The 
students are obliged to return at rush hours and the young girls suffer greatly, 
especially from the crowds which are increasing each season as Washington Heights 
grows. 

Can't we have something so that the young people may swing in a direction 
opposite to that which calls people to business, thus relieving congestion as well as 
benefitting the health of our youth. New York, as statistics show, is far behind other 
cities in high schools and in these days of preparedness we must not sit still and let 
matters drift. We must keep on hammering and hammering, even if it is an old 
story. If we are going to give a high school education to our young people, give it in 
the right way. Do you think that 90 per cent, of the students of some school would 
drop out before finishing the four year course if it could be given to them withoui 
such a sacrifice of energy and strength? I know that what I state is only a 
repetition of what has been said over and over again, but we must fight it out on this 
line if it takes all this summer as well as that of many others. 

Chairman Robitzek — Any one else? 

Dr. May G. Wilson, Public School 46 — I don't know — I did not know that I was 
to introduce this subject. I am to speak on the luncheon period. If you will allow 
me to read a resolution that was passed at the Parents' meeting of P. S. 46 on April 
25, and was adopted unanimously, I would like to do so. 

Chairman Robitzek — Anything you have in writing you may submit to the 
stenographer. 

Dr. Wilson — I think this resolution covers it, and it won't take much time. I 
realize the hour. 

Whereas, the present lunch hour is supposed to be from 12 to 1 o'clock. It 



212 

being actually one hour minus the time it takes the child to go to and from school, 
which averages from 10 to 20 minutes, minus 10 to IS minutes, as the children are sup- 
posed to be in the building by a quarter to 10 minutes to 1, leaving 25 minutes to 40 
minutes for the time spent in the home. 

And whereas, it is considered by medical authority that the big meal of the day 
for children should be at noon, and that it is impossible to have proper mastication 
and digesting the food in the allotted time; 

And whereas, medical authorities agree that the shortness of the present lunch 
hour is a distinct menace to the health of the school child and that the existent 
conditions are in good measure responsible for the far too numerous cases of mal- 
nutrition. 

And whereas, at the present time when the Board of Education is considering 
the Gary plan and other changes of school curriculum, they must be strongly advised 
as to the importance of considering this question ; 

And whereas, in Boston, in various cities in the Middle West, in Switzerland, 
Italy,' in Germany, school authorities have long recognized the importance of the 
mid-day rest and have one hour and a half to two hours as a lunch; 

And whereas, it is the duty of the Board of Education to safeguard the health 
of the children under its care; 

I herefore, be it resolved that this Association work to increase the present 
lunch period at least one half hour (from 12 to 1.30) giving one hour and a half 
and that in so doing it be understood that the children should not report at the 
building until 1.30. 

Chairman Robitzek — Would you take that time from the children in the after- 
noon or in the early morning? They take half an hour away from the school hours. 
Would you take it away after three? 

Dr. Wilson — If it could be arranged that the school hour should not be later. 
it would be advisable. 1 think they could spare that half hour. 

i hairman Robitzek — You mean take away from the school hour that time; in- 
stead our schools make it four hours and a half? 

Dr. Wilson — I do not think we ought to add to the present school hours. 
Chairman Robitzek — You know there are a great many who advocate the ex- 
tension of the school time from 5 to 6 hours. 

Dr. Wilson — Whatever happens we want a longer luncheon. Personally and 
speaking for physicians, I do not believe that children should have such a long 
period, but whatever comes we do believe that a longer luncheon period is a thing 
that should be attended to. 

Chairman Kobitzek — Alderman Friedlanger suggests that the daylight saving bill 
before Congress would be more in line with your suggestion? 

Dr. Wilson — I want to just mention the names of child specialists who not only 
endorse, but are in strict sympathy and advocate this; I will not read the letters, to 
save time, but just the names. 

Chairman Kobitzek — I would be glad to have you file them. 

Dr. Wilson— I will file them. Dr. Kerley; Dr. Holt; Dr. Pisek; Dr. Chapin; 
Linnaeus E. La Fetra ; Joseph E. Winters ; R. S. Haynes ; Roger H. Dennett : Wil- 
liam Shannon, and Milo H. Gates. 

Chairman Robitzek — They all agree to an extension of the luncheon hour? 
Dr. Wilson — Yes; some want two hours and some an hour and a half. 
Chairman Kobitzek — None suggest where the hour should be taken from? 
Dr. Wilson— I want to urge that as a Welfare Committee I think this: in spite 
of all you have heard this evening, that is the most important recommendation you 
can offer (applause). 

Chairman Robitzek — Phillip Goodhardt. 
(No response.) 



213 

Chairman Robitzek — Mr. Gaudineer, Public School 52. 

Mr. Gaudineer — I would like to say just a word on the high school question - , 
you have heard from the other speakers that we are badly in need of a high school 
in this section. I think I am qualified to speak on that subject because of the fact 
that I have a boy in high school. I have a girl in high school now. My boy went 
from 52, that is Academy Street, 201st Street, I presume it would be, if it was 
numbered from Broadway, Mr. Snyder's school, to Stuyvesant high school, because 
DeWitt Clinton, which was a little nearer, was more crowded at the time he was 
going to high school. That was a distance of 10 miles. 

Chairman Robitzek — How many years ago was that, Mr. Gaudineer? 

Mr. Gaudineer — That was only two years ago. He started down there. He left 
the house at half past six in the morning. I go early. I go at half past seven. He 
went at half past six to go to that school. The class I believe was to start at eight, 
but the children had to be in the class room some ten minutes or thereabouts before 
the class was called. That is a trip to 14th Street, across 14th Street, to Second 
Avenue, to 15th Strf"."'; the school being between First Avenue and Second Avenue 
on 15th Street, and running to 16th Street. He started down on his first time at 
a quarter to eleven, and was home in the evening at a quarter past six. After a 
year of that and after he had passed his Freshmen year, I suggested : You put in 
an application to have your hours changed, and now boys that are coming in just 
let them have a little of the night work, and see if you cannot get in some daylight 
saving, and he did so. His hours were changed, and with a vengeance. He started 
forth at half past six and was home again just shortly before noon. 

After his home work he had all afternoon to loaf around the street and nothing 
to do. I thought that was pretty bad. As a general thing when a boy gets to be 
fifteen years of age, with nothing to do but hang around corners, he will get into 
mischief. 

After another year of that I took him out and placed him with one of the large 
banks in Wall Street, and he has been there ever since. 

I now have a daughter in high school, and I am very much in hope, not only 
for my own sake, but for the sake of other parents, that the facilities of that school 
will be increased, and that the new building will be granted to this community. There 
are some four or five important subjects that are coming up in the next term and 
again in the term following that they must be taught under the school curriculum in 
this State ; they are compulsory, and we have not the facilities there in that building 
and have no way to provide them. The Regents refuse to pass the children unless 
they are taught those subjects by methods prescribed by the State of New York. If 
they have not the facilities, what are you going to do? Don't you think it is a heavy 
handicap on that youngster going out from that school and facing those tests? 

This community, Marble Hill, Inwood, and so on, is perhaps the most rapidly 
growing section of the city. I have in mind Brownsville and Flatbush when I say 
that. Within two blocks of that high school and Public School 52 there is a single 
building operation going on at this time, which when completed will house 800 
families, allowing four, I think the regular method is five — four, two children, a 
husband and wife, and you have a small sized village right in that one block. That is 
only one operation by one building concern, and there are others going on all the 
time. Whether they can get steel or cannot get steel these buildings are going up, 
many of them providing facilities for housing hundreds and hundreds of families. 
Where the children are going to go we haven't any idea. 

There is another matter, as to what the business men think of the prospect of 
this new road. There is a corner out on Broadway where a man has a theatre project 
and that will seat thirty-five hundred people. I think that is the largest theatre in 
town, with I lie exception of the Hippodrome and the Metropolitan, larger than the 



214 

Strand. He must expect to scat those thirty-five hundred people or he would not 
be putting up that building. We are going to have a terribly crowded condition 
in the Washington Heights section within the very near future, unless we get busy 
and get not only a new high school and elementary school, but both. And I think 
we need this new high school, of course. 

One of our great men the other day, one of whom we are all proud, made the 
remark that in his experience all boards were long, narrow and wooden — and that 
remark was made by the builder of the Panama Canal, General Goethals. I am sure 
that does not apply to the honorable Board of Aldermen, nor to the Board of 
Education. 

Mr. Goldfarb — I think I am authorized to say that the Board of Aldermen, their 
committee sitting here to-night, have been very much aroused by the remarks made 
about the high school, and they say they are on record in favor of a high school, 
and not merely on record, but are going to advocate it (applause). 

Mr. Gaudineer — 1 was sure of that when I made that remark. I was also sure 
of the Board of Education. I may say to the Board of Aldermen, because these 
gentlemen represent the other members of that board, and one or two others, that I 
know of besides these gentlemen, that they are pledged to give us all the support that 
they can in this movement for a high school. I think that we may safely expect to 
have ilie best wishes of the Board of Education, because Mr. Churchill has repeatedly 
told us that he would do all that he could. Several influential members, particularly 
Mr. Allen, who is a graduate of old 52, up here, has also said that, so I think that 
wc can count on the Board of Aldermen and the Board of Education, and one member 
at least of the Board of Estimate has personally pledged me his word that he would 
do all he could, so that I think we need only ask— only direct our efforts to get this 
high school and the Other needed improvements that the speakers have mentioned 
this evening (applause). 

Chairman Robitzek— Mr. Alfred E. Mulligan, President of the Association for the 
Welfare of Handicapped Children . 

Mr. Alfred I . .Mulligan — Ladies and Gentlemen: I have been asked to come here 
and tell you about the work of the teachers of handicapped children, the men and 
women who endeavor to improve the condition of the anemic, the blind, the crippled, 
the deaf, the mental defectives and the speech defectives. These teachers with few 
exceptions receive no advance in salary above the grade of teacher. 

Chairman Robitzek — Pardon me, do you come from this section? 

Mr. Mulligan — I do. 1 am a resident of this section. It requires years of intens- 
ive training to prepare the teachers for this work and their results speak for them- 
selves. It would seem just, therefore, to the Speaker, that the Board of Education 
recognized the work of highly trained specialists, and that that would justify dignify- 
ing their position with appropriate remuneration. (Applause.) 

One year ago to a day a new department was created in this city, the Department 
of Street Improvement. A director was appointed. No teachers have been appointed 
in this department. The street improvement department of the city of New York 
was established for the purpose of correcting speech defects, such as stammering, 
stuttering, lisping, foreign accent, and in the public schools of New York City we 
have at least fifty thousand cases of acute speech defect. At the present time there 
arc in our city only six speech improvement teachers and a director to do the enormous 
work of correcting these cases. These teachers are located in the lower east and west 
side. Washington Heights lias not one. The total of the speech improvement teachers 
payroll at present is $9,064 for the year 1917, as compared with the following amounts 
which represent the approximate amounts paid to teachers of the departments noted 
below. 

Chairman Robitzek — That has all been submitted to us, at previous meetings, 



215 

except so far as it affects the Washington Heights section. There is no necessity in 
going into statistics. That is all covered. I do not know what you are reading from. 
Those reports have been very forcibly by three young ladies who have appeared in 
Brooklyn before us. Of course, they did not refer to location of schools in Wash- 
ington Heights, and only referred to Brooklyn, but they gave figures presenting those 
statistics which you have mentioned. I do not want in any way to curtail your re- 
marks, though. 

Mr. Mulligan — The taxpayers at Washington Heights are not familiar with these 
figures and they don't know the conditions as they exist. 

Chairman Robitzek — You see, we are making a record here. I am speaking of the 
stenographic record. We do not want to encumber the record with tabulations. 

Mr. Mulligan — But I would like to bring out to the parents and taxpayers here 
that in nearly every school there is an average of one hundred acute cases of speech 
defects and that the child with the speech defect is an outcast. The child is placed 
in Coventry as a rule and is unable to take any part in the school because its example 
is extremely contagious and therefore the regular teacher cannot handle that case. 
That case should be with a specialist from nine to three or whatever time of the school 
day is appropriated for his or her correction. 

iMost of the principals I am sure have directors of speech improvement. Most 
of them are not fitted for this work. Those exceptions should be taken care of by the 
parent associations and I exhort you, urge you, if you are in favor of speech improve- 
ment on the Heights, that you go on record and place before the City these facts, 
with your demand, and have your right represented in such a way as you are entitled 
to have it represented by speech specialists on the Heights. (Applause.) 

Chairman Robitzek — Doctor Sholnitz. Public School 115. 

Doctor Sholnitz — Mr. Chairman, Gentlemen and Ladies : Taking off my coat 
does not signify that I am going to fight. I do not trust you. (Laughter.) Gentlemen, 
laugh ; I am not so dangerous. I want to tell you why. I am above the conscription 
age, which is one reason why I would not fight. Secondly I have had a time hearing 
so much of order which disabled me to fight, but I am an expansionist. I always 
need much room when I write or do anything I want to. I need much room, so 
I would feel very sorry if you would deal so strongly with me and confine me to the 
ten-minute limit. 

Ladies and gentlemen, do not laugh too long because they will deprive me of 
my time. 

I greatly admire the Quaker who does not speak unless the spirit moves him. 
Without a pure and noble purpose to talk is to say nothing. My addressing you to- 
night is coupled not only with a desire of a father to improve the means of educating 
his children and the facilities for doing it, but of all the children of Public School 
No. 115, on 177th street. The duty of a host who invites a guest is to give him the 
very best attention, to show him all the honor and to treat him and feed him well. 
We, the parents, are the hosts of our children. Our children did not invite them- 
selves. We invited them, and as the host it is our duty to give them the very best 
that is at our command. The child of to-day is the citizen of to-morrow. He 
depends greatly on the foundation of a building, the character of the superstructure 
he can put upon it. As we bring up our children in the way and mannerism we bring 
up our children that kind of citizen we are entitled to expect to have, so therefore 
just as we expect the very best material for the foundation of a building, so it is 
necessary for us to take the greatest care and give the greatest attention to the 
gradual upbuilding of our children. 

Now I will come to the part time. I knew of two brothers in Europe, in Paris, 
who possessed but one pair of gloves; when the older brother went out in the morning 
he wore the gloves and the younger brother wore them in the afternoon. There is 



216 

another danger which faces us — part time. It was mentioned partly already. Idleness 
is a curse. How shall the children apply their leisure time? Not only the children, 
but the servants are very scarce and money is still scarcer to hire them. The woman, 
the mother, has her hands full to attend to her home duties. What an addition, what 
a burden it would be to the mother especially who has to take care of children who 
have no place to go to on account of having only part time? So we see the necessity 
of having ample room and equipment for the children to enjoy these sessions. 

There is a great necessity for our School 115. I will come to the point now 
which interests me mostly. I do not know whether this point will interest mostly the 
Board of Education, but I hope so. We need a wing. I am very partial to the wing 
of a chicken and therefore I speak on a wing. 

They tell us in religion that in Sodom when a tall man came for lodging they 
gave him a short bedstead and chopped off whatever stuck out of the bedstead; and 
if a short man they stretched him so much until he fitted into the bedstead. It 
reminds me of the part time with the children. We are doing that with them. I do 
not agree with the former speakers that we are such great taxpayers that we demand 
our right on account of that. I am a very small taxpayer. I think it is the duty of 
the guardians of our children, in whomsoever we put our trust, to look after the 
welfare of those who trust to them. I think that wherever space is necessary, 
wherever it is a place where the people pay large taxes or many taxes or not, it is 
the duty of the elders to keep the young ones. A mother usually when marketing 
provides for her family according to the size thereof. She bakes bread and spreads 
a meal according to how many mouths she has to feed. So it is the duty of the 
Board of Education to provide means according to the size and according to the 
number of children which are visiting this school. So therefore I did not come like 
the Frenchman, to fight and say you must do it, but we come to plead, to pray and 
to say in behalf of Public School No. 115 that we are in great need of a wing in our 
school in order that we may place our children on full time and not to deprive them 
of their birthright. 

I can read by your faces, gentlemen, that you have some intelligence. 1 also 
notice that you are well dressed. 1 also notice that you have enjoyed your education — 
not on half time, I hope. Well, do the same thing for us as your parents have done 
for you. (Applause.) 

Chairman Robitzek— Mr. Henry Klein. 

Mr. Henry Klein — Listening to the complaints and criticisms of the preceding 
speakers to-night, particularly to the preceding speaker, it would seem as if there 
was no Board of Education and that the Board of Aldermen had had to take its 
place at least for the time being in the present emergency. 

There must lie a very good reason why the Board of Education does not seem to 
exist, and one of the principal reasons is that the Board of Education has been too 
busy politically from my information to bother much with the details of school 
matters, or thru \wmld never be so many complaints. 

When 1 say too busy politically I mean too busy grabbing control, not for the 
welfare of the children who attend the schools but for the welfare of a financial group 
in tin-, town. (Applause.) We have had in this town a Board of Education as long 
as the school system has existed of a great many members, but those members who 
have tried to do something to improve the school system, have been handicapped and 
blocked and interfered with for the last seven years. It is not a matter of a day but 
it is a matter of several years. 

A powerful faction has been getting control of the school system and the introduc- 
tion of the Gary system is their final stage or rather one of their important stages 
so far as changing your school course in this town is concerned. It is not a complete 
change and is not all they are going to do. It is not a complete change, or is not all 
they are n< >in« to do. but the real thing, what it costs you, you will have this: they 



• 217 

are going to try to go down to the Board of Education and take control of the affairs, 
because you are the parents and your children are going to suffer for it in spite of the 
fact that you are paying the bills. 

The Mayor of this town was president of the Board of Aldermen four years 
before he became Mayor, and was president for three and a half years. From the day 
he became president of the Board of Aldermen he had control of the school system 
virtually. You do not know that, but from 1910 they started an investigation of the 
school courses of this town and spent some $150,000 on it, and he was the Chairman 
of that Committee of the Board of Estimate that did it. From that time on the 
school system has been muddled, and if you want to know whether that is so, ask 
what came out of that, what became of that investigation, what became of all their 
work and report. That has been the start of this whole business. The children have 
been put into a mould and put out just as Mr. Hertz told you by the die system. A 
mechanic knows what that is. He gets a die and he makes everything according to 
that die, and they form according to that mould. They turn out all from that same 
mould and they are all alike. 

Initiative has been driven out of the schools. The children have not got it. You 
cannot develop a strong man out of the school system today. You can develop 
nothing but class caste, and that is what they are all going to be unless you take 
hold of this system and wipe it out. You do not know what this system is costing 
you. You know it costs $42,000,000 a year for education. That is SO points in the tax 
rate. You haven't a word to say about it at all. The men that say it are Mr. Flexner. 
Mr. Fosdick, Mr. Arnstein, and three or four others who are directed by the Rocke- 
feller Foundation (applause). 

They have got it stronger and have more to say now than they ever had to say 
before because they have got their Mayor doing what they want him to do, and 
appointing the members that they want him to appoint. They have got the members 
of the Board of Education in their pockets. Mr. Arnstein is their man, appointed as a 
business manager by the Board of Education. There are a thousand business 
managers of the Board of Education supervising education. Get your hand on the 
purse string of the Board of Education and you can get them to do what you want 
them to do, and that is what they are doing. 

What does the Board of Education cost today? I do not know whether the 
Aldermanic Committee had testimony on it, but one fault of the entire expenditures 
of your school course is for Garyizing right now. $10,000,000 a year of salaries of the 
school teachers goes for those employed in the Gary system. Now, four years of 
experiment of introducing the system, and in those four years the city has spent six 
to seven million dollars and contracted six or seven million dollars more to change the 
school buildings. 

The school in Brownsville to which Mr. Hertz referred has 5.000 children walking 
in and out of it all day. How much education can they get? If you want a high 
school on Washington Heights you have got to kill the entire system on Washington 
Heights (applause). The Gary system is a monopoly. It is monopolistic, not only 
the money of the taxpayers through the school system being monopolized through it. 
but it is monopolizing the brains of the children and they are not getting education. 

It is being absorbed from them. That may be the scheme which certain people 
have in mind. It may be that is why they are reducing the curriculum, to take history 
and grammar out of the courts. What does a child want with grammar. If they 
learn to talk correctly they may get a job and go ahead. They don't have to have 
that in the new f angled scheme of things. What does a child want with history? He 
may know the various things that happened in past years and how money has con- 
trolled newspapers and education and religion and everything in previous years. 

Mr. Flexner outlined that change, and he represents the Rockefellers. Those 



218 

are things you have to think of. We have got to stop the Gary system because it is 
imposing something on the people of this town and on children that is to the detri- 
ment of the entire community. 

I do not mean that the lessons that they learn — if they are going to learn to 
be a printer — I do not mean that it is not wise to have a printing press nor printing 
machines, but that is purely theoretical. They are installing those mechanical ma- 
chines for teaching the children those different trades, and they spend money in in- 
stalling those machines, and when they find the system is no good they have got to 
be thrown away for scrap, and that is where your money is going; and while the 
preceding speaker did not hit the point in his quaint old fashioned way, he did 
express something we did not catch. Economy in the public school system ! Economy 
means honest efficiency and open efficiency. When Mitchel went to Gary to im- 
port this system, and I know Mitchel very well, and know he is a very shallow 
person (applause) ; I know him for a very superficial person. I know he is a very 
bold person. I know he does as he pleases. When Mitchel went to Gary with that he 
had Mr. Bruere, and Mr. Bruere the head of the Bureau of Municipal Research, sup- 
ported by Rockefeller, Mr. Bruere brought it for him. He is a bright man, but Gary 
has 5,000 school children, not a hundred thousand school children, and Gary is a 
mechanic town, not a town where the melting pot is like here, combining all classes 
of people, men who have all kinds of occupations ; the children are mechanics mostly 
in Gary, like under the old caste system in India, whatever grade you have been 
born in you stay there. There are 800 castes in India, and if you become a mechanic, 
if you are the son of a mechanic, they probably want to keep you there, and that is 
what they are trying to do under this educational program. 

You have got the net result of the whole thing. The children that are cast 
into a mould and taken out of a mould lose their initiative. In 15,000 or 20,000 school 
teachers that have been badly bossed for a number of years, whose initiative has 
been driven out of them by Maxwellism, and you have got Mr. Maxwell condemned 
as being the Rockefeller crowd — they have taken him up as a pet, that is the Rocke- 
feller crowd have, and they are putting him over as a great factor in the Board of 
Education. That is all. That is the only reason why they took him out and what 
thej have done with hini now is that they have retired him on full pay, at your 
expense, by grace of tlie Rockefeller faction. That is what you are up against. Here 
you have got a little crowd. Mr. Rockefeller does not pay personally over $200,000 a 
year taxes to this city. He is worth over two thousand million dollars taken from 
you and me and everybody else through exploitation. 

You have got one man with a little cabinet of not very big minded people, but 
big moneyed people behind it all. You have got Mr. Rockefeller paying $200,000 of 
your taxes directing the entire City government, with an expenditure of $250,000,000 
a year, which you and I and everybody else pays. Why? Because he happens to have 
a man in office whom he helped to put there that predominates upon the minds 
not only of the Department of Education, but the Department of Correction, and 
every other department in the City government, and what concerns you most is the 
educational department, and that is where one-quarter of the entire sum raised each 
year for taxation goes, for education. 

1 thought 1 would make that plain, so that while you are discussing this prob- 
lem with the Board of Aldermen, you can bear that in mind, that it is absolutely 
essential in order to get your school system where it should be to get an effective and 
useful system for your children, at your expense, $40,000,000 a year, and that is $8 
for each individual man, woman and child in the City a year; $8 for each one of 
us — that while you are working along those lines, you are trying to get the educa- 
tional system back to where it should be with the three R's as a basis, and every- 
thing else that should fit in as part of the superstructure of education, such as 
history, grammar and civic and other things, and cut out not only Mr. Maxwell's fads 



219 

and fancies, but the new combination of studies introduced by this Gary system, be- 
cause the Gary system while it is supposed to be an experiment, is not an experi- 
ment. Men who have studied the Gary system since it has been here know that it is 
not the right system for this town. It is not an experiment. It is only an experiment 
as long as they want an excuse to extract some money out of your Board of Esti- 
mate, and once they change the school system into the new Gary plan, they don't 
need people who served under the old plan. They can introduce their friends into 
the department just the same as they did with Mitchel elsewhere in other City de- 
partments. 

I thought that when you saw that you would think it over. Take this thing 
up and demand of the City authorities that the Gary system be stopped and that the 
old school system be restored, and that your children will get back once more to the 
common rudiments of an education. 

The Chairman — Mr. David H. Lehman. 

Mr. David H. Lehman — We come here with a programme this evening that we 
were all going to talk about a high school. The idea was that we were all going to 
drive home the point that we needed a high school for Washington Heights, the 
Inwood Section. There is no need of talking any further when we know our com- 
mittee here is in favor and endorses a high school for this section, and as Mr. 
Gaudineer pointed out there are some members of the Board of Estimate and other 
members that will advocate and help us in getting a high school, and as the Chair- 
man informs us Mr. Dcwling also is behind the movement. We feel secure that we 
will get a high school, and while we feel secure in leaving that question, we want 
a high school and want it soon. 

I object to the Home Defense gentleman's argument of using Billy Sunday's 
Tabernacle for a makeshift. I do not think that that should meet with the approval of 
this community. We have a makeshift at present in the old building at Broadway 
and Academy street. It is only a poor makeshift at that. We want a school that 
is modern in every way to accommodate the people we have here. We want it in a 
place where the children will go to that and won't have to buck the traffic in going 
to it. We don't want to have them bucking the traffic that we have in our subway. 
We don't want them to come right against the bulk of our traffic. In other words 
we should not have it where the children coming downtown with the bulk of the 
traffic and then coming back with the crowd late in the day, thus going against the 
bulk of the traffic both times. I think it therefore should be in the upper part of 
the Heights or in the upper section where it would be inducing. 

We think the suggestion of Mr. Hertz in regard to the Gary plan would be a 
very good one, in that if every citizen in the Heights wrote, as Senator Simpson 
says, 271,000 people — if they were all to write one postal to the Board of Aldermen 
or the Mayor, there is no doubt that that system, the Gary System, would not be 
successful in the Heights. If every citizen in this community were to write one post- 
card to the Board of Education demanding a high school in this section,' if every 
one sent one, no doubt we would have a high school in this section. 

I would like to go on record also that I think the previous speaker's remarks 
were a little out of order. I think calling down our Mayor before our Board of 
Aldermen is not at all correct. (Applause). 

The Chairman — You have already spoken at 93d street, Mr. Karelsen. 

Mr. Karelsen — I am a member of the local school board of this district, and I 
would like to state, Mr. Chairman, that I am chairman of a committee and I will 
take only a very few minutes. The other members of the committee would like to 
hear it. 

Chairman Robitzek — We will be glad to hear you, if you have anything other 
than what you have already said, to present to the committee. 

Mr. Karelsen — I want to impress upon the committee these points. 



220 

Chairman Robitzek — We won't allow you to encumber the record by repetition. 

Mr. Karelsen — I want to impress on these men that all that has been said this 
evening has been presented by the local board to the Board of Education and the 
answer of the Board of Education is known, and they have complied with 90 per 
cent, of the requests, except that in regard to the manner in which construction is 
done, and that is a law over which the Board of Education has no control. That 
is a law that contracts must be awarded to the lowest bidder. Outside of that all 
that has been presented this evening, the local board has asked for. The answer 
from the Board of Education is that there is no money, and to have the schools as 
was outlined this evening would cost more than double the amount appropriated. 
The annual expenditure would be more than double. The expenditure for the schools 
as needed, I believe, would require $150,000,000, which I doubt very much the citizens 
would be willing to pay, and therefore I would like to repeat practically what I said 
before and urge this committee, who certainly have shown a great deal of interest 
in the matter and spent a great deal of time on the matter, that they should direct 
their attention to the Commissioner of Taxes and the Board of Estimate and Appor- 
tionment, and show us how to raise the money, and then the Board of Education 
will do the rest. 

Alderman Eriedlander — It won't take that much money to put a high school in 
Washington Heights, where the boys haven't any school from 59th street to Inwood. 

.Mr. Karelsen — With regard to a high school on Washington Heights, I work very 
hard and I do not think anyone in the City of New York devoted more time and 
energy to it than I have. But I should think we need an elementary school more 
than a high school, and I have a letter in my hand from Mrs. Mullen in regard to 
a new wing on Public School 115. She writes that it is impossible to obtain the 
money from the Board of Education or from the Board of Estimate, and that it will 
be necessary if the schools are crowded to put them on double time on account of lack 
of funds. 

The Board of Education recognizes everything that has been said here tonight. 
1 am not championing them, but I would like to advise citizens as to the facts. They 
recognize everything that has been said here tonight. The Gary System was only 
adopted for economy. Twenty to forty in a classroom would be held by the Board 
of Education to be fine. 

Alderman Friedlander — There is such a thing as the retrenchment. They have in 
other departments shown retrenchment. Why not in the educational department? 
Why spend a lot of money on things that are spectacular? (Applause.) 

Mr. Karelsen — I spent fifty-one years as a volunteer worker in. the Board of Educa- 
tion and 1 could not place my hand on any large amount that has been wasted, and I 
have no such idea of any such condition in the Board of Education. It may seem 
like a waste of money to give such a large amount to Mr. Wirt. That was given 
in the inii n onomy to introduce the duplicate plan in place of the other plan. 

1 know one thing, in a certain school in this city they complained about the sanitary 
arrangements. 1 asked the parents if they would contribute a dollar and have the 
sanitary arrangements fixed. They said let the City of New York and the Board of 
Education do it. 

Air. Rozelle — I am a teacher in this neighborhood, P. S. 169, and also a resident 
and a parent, by the way, in this neighborhood, living at 178th street, and I am sorry 
to say you have not heard the cause of the person that has been used nine-tenths of 
the time as a rubber stamp, as I will explain the expression. 

Mr. Chairman, as I understand this investigation it was one which was started to 
sift down and reach down to rock bottom to find out the trouble with the educational 
facilities and matters in this town. Now, Mr. Chairman, if I may say, I would like 
to say that a man on the platform a moment ago suggested that the children are put 
in a mould, have been put in moulds for years back. I have been the game for a 
dozen years or so and I can testify to that expression. It is correct. 



221 

An article appeared in this evening's paper. I will read it. 

"The absence of representatives of teachers' associations from the hearings has 
caused considerable adverse comment from teachers interested in the correcting of 
school conditions." 

Furthermore, it says on down the line . 

Chairman Robitzek — What paper is that? 

Mr. Rozelle— This is the Globe I am reading from. 'The Methods of the Com- 
mittee" — that is the Committee I am now before — "don't believe that it will be neces- 
sary to resort to such drastic means to get all the facts about the school conditions into 
its record," — that is of summoning the teachers before this Committee. Gentlemen, 
I am compelled to say that I believe you shall be compelled to summon the teachers 
before you, because they are afraid to come here, and I am proud of being president 
of the largest teachers' association of the City of New York, the Teachers Interest 
Organization, as it is known, and teachers come to me — I am not speaking of super- 
visors now, I am speaking of the persons who are in direct contact with the product 
of the schools of Greater New York, the children. The teachers that dared come 
before you, and I place myself in this category, are very liable to be called before 
some superintendent, possibly some acting City superintendent, or before some Prin- 
cipal, and made to answer for the facts that they might or have revealed before you 
and to you. (Applause.) Gentlemen, I am not afraid. I do not boast. Please do 
not misconstrue my remarks, I am not afraid to state facts that I have learned. 

While I have been president for these last two months of this organization, the 
teachers of the City of New York, gentlemen, I am sorry that I have got to say it, 
but they are forced to allow the children to graduate from the schools as they do 
graduate and then the teacher is criticised for permitting those children to be not 
competent to fill positions which they try to fill after they leave school. 

I have been in a little campaign along with a great many known as a vacation 
proposition ; otherwise as some of us know it a salary reduction proposition. 

A gentleman just this week a principal brought into her office, P. S. 61 Manhattan 
— investigate, put me on record as being truthful or not truthful, please — P. S. 61, 
Manhattan, a principal brought into her office a teacher and because the teacher had 
not voted for her on an election — a teachers' ballot by the way, and secret ballot by 
the way, and please remember those ballots were taken by the principal into the office 
to find out from the handwriting who the persons were who did the writing, and 
I say two teachers were put in the office behind closed doors ; and good night to the 
happiness -of those two teachers. In my own school, Public School 169, I have known 
of teachers who are scared to death the minute they are requested to appear at the 
office. Why? I will ask you Why? Why should any teachers who have the co- 
operation pf their supervisors feel afraid when they are sent forward by a super- 
visor? Is there not something wrong in the system that causes the persons who are 
in direct contact with our children to be in that frame of mind? How can those 
teachers give their best energy to the children? Forty of them, mind you, and more! 
When these same 120 or 130 women, that is the number, but we will say the average 
is 40 — how can those teachers give their interest to thirty or forty children when 
they are forever watching the door, fearful that some supervisor, whether it be a 
superintendent, principal or some higher person is forever coming in? You, I sup- 
pose, are saying to yourselves, Well, by what right do they suspicion that door being 
opened? Please investigate and you will find what I tell you, gentlemen, you will not 
get down to rock bottom until you summon the teachers here and have them speak 
for themselves. They will not come and appear before you, they dare not, because — 
for myself I will not be surprised, gentlemen, if I am informed by letter tomorrow 
morning to appear before some educational official for stating the facts I have stated 
here tonight. (Applause.) 



222 

I beg of you, Sirs, all I ask is fair play. We do not believe, regardless of what 
has been said about some of the members of the Teachers Interest Organization — we 
do not believe that the children must be sacrificed for anybody. The children come 
first and I dare anybody to attempt to prove that I am wrong when I make that 
statement. We are protecting the teacher that is in direct contact with the children 
and when you are doing that you are protecting the children, because the child copies 
the teacher more than it copies anyone else in the educational system. (Applause.) 

Mr. Chairman, I- have noticed that you have permitted some a little bit longer 
time than others. I do not care to take any longer time if you so desire. However, 
the moment that you stop me from speaking any longer, I beg of you to call on 
somebody else, to call Mr. Druggan. He is quite capable of giving you a little 
insight into things that you may wish to hear. 

Now here is something that may give rather a shock to you and the audience, 
that will give you some information that has not been given because the people that 
you have called upon to do the speaking have been selected, I humbly believe — I say 
were selected by the persons who got up this meeting. (Applause.) My name, Mrs. 
Sophia Loebinger's name, Mr. Druggin's name and some others were submitted to 
you. I have waited patiently to hear them called and they have not been called. 
Possibly they did not even reach the platform. I fear that something has slipped. 
Please investigate that, Mr. Chairman. 
Mr. Druggin — Druggin is ray name. 

Chairman Robitzek — I asked when I had concluded the list of names that were 
lure if there was anyone else to be heard. You responded and if there is anyone 
else wishes to be heard he will be heard. 

Mr. Druggin — My name was on the list, but when it was called somebody sug- 
gested that I should not be heard here to-night — somebody on the platform, Mr. 
Chairman, because my name was called by you quite distinctly. 
Chairman Robitzek — Did you respond? 

Mr. Druggin — I responded, yes, but the suggestion was made to you that you 
call somebody else. 

Chairman Robitzek— I did not see you respond. 

Mr. Druggin — 1 responded and came from my seat half way down the floor. 
Chairman Robitzek — Tell us what you want to say. 

Mr. Druggin — There have been two meetings held in this school in the last 
month's time and there has been an attack made politically on the Board of Aldermen 
in calling this investigation. There has been an attack made and a vicious political 
attack made of their motives, thai their motives are not sincere and are not within 
iinds of justice as far as the people of this city are concerned. 
Mr. Chairman, we have got here to-night practically all the parents and members 
of the parents association. Mr. Chairman, there is and must be a reflection at least 
that some man has used the parents association for his own political purposes, but, 
Mr. Chairman, your Committee started this investigation not at the instigation of the 
parents association but at the instigation of the trade unionism in this town and there 
never lias been a time in the history of trade unionism in this country when the 
political man or politcal party has been able to deliver those men on election day 
in this city or any city in the Union. 

We have come to a time which is serious and which should be considered so, 
and you should not stop the investigation which you are about to stop until you find 
out the members of the P.oard of Education that have been run for the last four 
or six years by the Rockefeller institution in these United States. We have got a 
situation here where our children are persecuted. I have got four children attending 
one of our schools at the present time and I want to tell you that a parent who 
takes one side or the other to-day is taking some terrible chance. I want to say 



223 

that the poor teachers that take a stand either on one side or another are persecuted 
and brought down before the Board of Education and they are summarily dismissed 
or discharged because they have nerve to get up and stand for a certain principle. 
for righteousness, for our children in our public schools. 

That condition happened, Mr. Chairman, only two weeks ago, when the presi- 
dent of one of the Teachers Interest Organizations had advocated against the Pen- 
sion Bill. 

We had an administration in this town on the other hand that said the Pension 
Bill was all right, but they passed the Pension Bill in Albany and the President of 
this Association was called down before the Superintendent and abused because he 
was taking a stand against this Pension Bill. The crime was at that time that they 
were not sufficiently strong — that is, that they were a strong minority against that 
bill, but when they called the final meeting, Mr. Willcox, President of the Board of 
Education and of the Rockefeller Foundation at this time, was before the teachers' 
organization, and so was another well-known man, and he said, now, ladies and gentle- 
men, you must be positive that you will divide the three members of this Pension 
Board on either side, that is for the teachers that were for and the teachers that 
were against. The teachers that were against that bill elected all three members, 
which tended conclusively to show that they were in the majority, ever since they 
started this Pension Bill. 

You have started this investigation along the lines that were laid down by trade 
unionism in this town. To show that the Gary system was the most contemptible 
system that ever was tried to be put into our schools in these United States, 
to show that the Rockefeller institution tried to make our children mechanics 
and machinists and blacksmiths instead of lawyers, philosophers and artists, that was 
the reason it was started. You have tried to show in this condition in the last two 
or three weeks that we have had Abraham Flexner, the tool of the Rockefeller Founda- 
tion, resigned from the Board of Education, but not doing so. He said, I have 
achieved my results. He is sowing the seed of the Rockefeller Foundation— he has 
sown the seed of the Rockefeller Foundation. (Applause.) 

At the same time we had Frederick T. Gates of the Rockefeller Foundation, or 
Educational Foundation, resigning only two or three days ago, the man that said we 
don't need in our public schools — he said in his pamphlet on the School of To- 
morrow, we don't need any more lawyers, artists and professors of philosophers. 
We have now sufficient of those men. We need mechanics and we need men in the 
lower walks of life to be turned out from our public schools, and that, Mr. Chairman, 
is what we are driving at. That was the object in the investigation from trade 
unionism when they appealed to your Board inside of two months ago. 

I was at the first meeting and I was interested in the appeal of trade unions 
and not in 'the appeal of parents' associations that are run by political interests in 
this city, and in this vicinity especially, and I want to say, and I am frank to say, that 
your committee was started on a great footing when it started out to investigate 
the corruption that is in our Board of Education at the present time. We have known 
of our educational commissioners to go out in the hills of Long Island 

Chairman Robitzek— Did you read the petition that was sent to the Board ot 
Aldermen, upon which petition we are now holding these investigations? 

Mr. Druggan — Yes. 

Chairman Robitzek— That petition was sent by the Conference of Organized 
Labor. 

Mr. Druggan— Correct. 

Chairman Robitzek— You may be a member thereof. I do not know. Mr. Peter 
Bradv is Secretary of the labor conference. 

Mr. Druggan — That is correct. 



224 

Chairman Robitzek — You have evidently made an error in regard to the form 
of. the petition. The petition particularly requests us not to investigate the Gary 
system. That only comes up as an incident, but to investigate the educational matters 
and facilities of the City of New York. Certain allegations were made in that petition, 
and we are holding this investigation and we have particularly refused to take sides. 
We are hearing from the parents' associations and not only from the trade unions, 
but from the parents' associations, and any others that may be interested in regard 
to the educational system of New York City. 

Mr. Druggan — Of other organizations? 

Chairman Robitzek — I just want to put you right on that. 

Mr. Druggan — And all others interested in our public schools? 

Chairman Robitzek — Yes. 

Mr. Druggan — There were no lines drawn at the time. The trade unions of 
the city ask co-operation, immaterial of color, race or political party, and as it stands 
to-day. and as it has always stood, it stands there in the matter for individuals. 
It wants an investigation. I was coming to the point that members of the Board 
of Education — the investigation that was made by this committee of the Board of 
Commerce here a few years ago said there were many features that were inefficient in 
our public schools. There were none discharged for ten years. Mr. Chairman, 
there is not alone inefficient cases among the teaching class, but there are inefficient 
cases among the principal class, and there arc inefficient cases among the superinten- 
dent class, and among the Board of Commissioners; and I want to show the 
ineffciency, and I want to show where 46 members are now being reduced to 7 
members in order to bring it closer under the hands of Rockefeller's institutions in this 
city. I want to show what brought that about and the conditions that had prevailed 
in the Board of Education. 

We have got 46 members of the Board of Education. Those men worked without 
pay for the last twenty-five years, many of them on the Board of Education, but we 
know that in Long Island there have been farms of $350 per acre, and those acres 
were cut up into fourteen lots, and the Board of Education has gone out on that 
property and paid $3,000 per lot, making $42,000 for one acre inside of six months' 
time. That is where your economy comes in. That is where we are coming to a 
point at the present time where you must carry on this investigation. Do not stop 
now Find out and summon the Board of Education. Go into the files of the Board 
of Education and find out they have spent over $100,000,000 to repairs to public schools 
at the present time. 

Mr. Monahan — I am President of the Parents' Association of Public School 52. 
I challenge the statement. I challenge him to show political object in that associa- 
tion, or politics running into it, speaking for my own association. I want him to 
explain it. * 

Chairman Robitzek — Is there anyone that wants to be heard here who has not 
bei n heard? 

Mrs. Loebinger — My name, 1 believe, has been sent in to you by the Secretary 
of our organization, requesting you to permit me to submit certain facts to you 
to-night. I thank you very much for not calling upon me. I am going to conduct 
a city-wide open air campaign to-morrow midnight. 

Mr. Gold farb — I want to say that all of the names that were submitted this 
evening were put down on this list. Every name that was given to me and anybody 
who desires to look at this list may do so. I want to say just a few words, if you 
please, and that is this : I want to thank all the members of this district for their 
hearty co-operation with this General Welfare Committee. 

1 want to answer Mr. Karelzen, my good friend and neighbor, of the Local 
School Board, but before doing so I want to tell you why I gave this meeting. There 
were three meetings, one in Brooklyn, one downtown, and I thought those meetings 



225 

were excellent meetings, meetings that gave one the real idea of our public school 
system, and I did not give a hoot what became of the powers of the Board of 
Aldermen or this committee, or what they could do ; I wanted the folks to come 
together and listen to what benefits can be derived from our public school system. 

We may at any time gain some concrete benefit through this committee, but that 
was my essential purpose, and I went all around and I called upon various parents' 
associations. 

Let me tell you something about Parents' Association of Public School 5. There 
are a large number, probably 250 members, that did excellent work. We got up an 
excellent dental clinic there. They paid money out of their own pockets. 

Then we had Public School 186. I am going in the order of the geographical 
position on Washington Heights. 

I am going in the order of the geographical position on Washington Heights. 
Public School 186 had 250 members, Public School 46, I don't know how many 
members. I understand they have a thousand or as many as a thousand of these 
associations down to 52d Street, 169th, 115th, and everybody is invited to be present. 
Everybody has a right to express his views. It is a splendid idea, these parents' 
associations. It, invites co-operation between the home and the school and gets the 
proper ideas out. 

Let me tell you, as far as the ideas of Brother Karelsen are concerned, I do not 
know what may result from this meeting, but I know what may be the result for 
Washington Heights. We wanted and want it to be remembered as a community 
and that will tell you what we can do. Public School 5 is pretty well crowded. We 
have a large block of land in 141st Street and Hamilton Terrace. Why not build a 
school there? It will cost just as much to build a school there as to change the school 
for the Gary plan. That is No. 1. 

Public School 115. Give us one there that would accommodate the children. 

Public School 169. They have foundations for another school. They are trying 
to put a makeshift at Public School 52, which is used for a high school and used 
for an elementary school. 

Hearings closed. 

COPIES OF COMMUNICATIONS FILED WITH COMMITTEE ON GENERAL 
WELFARE OF BOARD OF ALDERMEN, RELATIVE TO INVESTIGA- 
TION OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 
William H. Allen, Director. Telephones, Worth 1797, 1798. 

Institute for Public Service, City Hall Square — 51 Chambers street, New York City, 
March 1, 1917. 

At to-day's hearing of the committee on education of the board of aldermen to 
consider reasons for and against making an investigation of school congestion, alleged 
restricted opportunity for training, alleged substitution of theorists instead of trained 
artisans in vocational work, alleged dominance by the board of estimate, etc., requested 
by the labor organizations. 

That the Gary experiment alone makes an investigation advisable was suggested 
by the Institute for Public Service through Wm. H. Allen, director. It was recalled 
that only last Wednesday the board of education voted $7,200,000 for the extension of 
the duplicate school plan to follow an earlier appropriation of $6,000,000. This 
$13,000,000 is for buildings, alterations and sites. More millions still are involved in 
the running cost for salaries of these new duplicate sessions schools. 

Among complaints that call for investigation are these : That the board of esti- 
mate has been coercing the board of education either to ignore or to coerce its edu- 
cational advisors; that scientific planning and current analyses of results have not 
been employed ; that Mr. Wirt's private secretary goes into schools, gives orders and 
makes promises, although not in the employ of either the board of education or the 



226 

board of estimate; that officers of the board of estimate have tried to "bribe" school 
principals by assuring them that if they will fall in line for the Gary plan they will 
obtain equipment, facilities and personal favor not otherwise obtainable; that the 
pledges of economy are not being fulfilled; that the enriched curriculum is not being 
provided, e. g., that a large school is asked to take care of 60 per cent, more pupils 
and is given only $15,000 for alterations, whereas in the first Gary school nearly 
$500,000 was spent ; that old fire risks are being ignored and new fire risks incurred 
by crowding schools without increasing exits: that whereas the Gary plan started 
to give 160 square feet per pupil playing it has dropped to 40 square feet; that 
changes in buildings and programs are made without consulting the principals respon- 
sible for using those changes for the benefit of pupils. 

The Rockefeller General Education Board's investigation of the Gary System at 
Gary was cited as urgent reason, for a New York investigation of the Gary system 
at New York. Persons who have worked on the Gary survey assert that the General 
Education Board's report will not only be adverse to the Gary plan at Gary but will 
riddle it and go so far as to challenge the integrity of its advertising. At the same 
time it is true that New York friends of the Gary System have been given the 
impression by General Education Board employes that the report will be favorable 
to the Gary System at Gary. Whether favorable or unfavorable it is certain that 
because of its source the Rockefeller Board's report will receive a tremendous amount 
of advertising in New York City and elsewhere. If adverse to the Gary System at 
Gary the report will cause two serious results in New York: (a) It will cause whole- 
sale condemnation of the Gary System in New York irrespective of its merits; (2) 
It will cause Gary partisans to charge Rockefeller persecution. No one can doubt 
that there will be much confusion and bitter partisanship. 

-s this forthcoming report is written on an entirely different principle from 
any other report which the General Education Board has issued it will not contain 
within it tile facts upon which adverse or favorable judgments are based. If without 
facts to prove it this report attacks Mr. Wirt and the Gary idea at Gary it will be 
worth $100,000 i yeai as propaganda for Mr. Wirt, while at the same time jeopardiz- 
ing every dollar of $1,1,000,000 put into a New York version of the Gary Plan. 

If on the other hand the Rockefeller Board's report commends the Gary Plan at 
Gary, as seems certain now it will not do, all the more reason why New York should 
by home investigation cA home methods and products ascertain how far the system 
which is being given to New York possess the elements that are commended at 
Gary in spite of the Fad tli.it in innumerable respects it is frankly stated that New 
York is not getting in 1917 what it understood in 1914 and 1915 to be the Gary type 
of duplicate session school. 
(On Letterhead — Conference of Organized Labor on Industrial Education of the 

i itj .it New York) March 5, 1917. 
Hon. Harry RoBITZEK, Chairman, Public Welfare Committee, City Hall, New York 

Dear Sir — Enclosed find a couple of clippings from the Sunday papers in reference 
to school conditions. 

In the matter of Queens schools, I w^u'd suggest that you invite Mrs. Alfred 
End to inform you as to the conditions in District No. 43 and the changes which 
have been requested and desired by the Local School board of which she is a member. 

I would also suggest that you write a letter to Mr. Gerald Griffin, President of 
Parents Association, Isham Park and 215th Street, New York City, and Mrs. A. P. 
Frost, President of Mothers' Council of Mothers' Clubs, 17 South Bond Street, Mount 
Vernon, N. Y., asking them to suggest to your Committee an outline of the matter 
which they would like investigated and also assuring the co-operation of their 
respective organizations. Yours very truly, P. J. BRADY, Secretary. 

Clippings attached to foregoing letter: 



227 

Finds Conditions "A Disc/race" in Queens Schools. 
Secretary of City's Committee on Education Promises Aid for Five Institutions. 

It is expected that conditions will be improved following the inspection by Mrs. 
Matilda Ford, secretary of the committee on education of the Board of Estimate of 
the public schools at Hollis, Queens, Springfield, St. Albans and Rosedale. Mrs. Ford 
was conducted on the tour by Mrs. Alfred J. Eno, of Jamaica, a member of the 
local school board of District No. 43. 

At each school committees of citizens met Mrs. Ford and Mrs. Eno and explained 
matters about which they had grievances. 

At the Rosedale school the sanitary arrangements were found to be so inade- 
quate that Mrs. Ford remarked : 

"This condition is a disgrace." 

Urgent Need of Gymnasium at Erasmus Hall. 
Fifteen Hundred Boys Taking Physical Training in Low-Ceilinged Cellar Condemned 

as Unfit. 
The attention of the Board of Education has been called to the urgent need of a 
gymnasium for boys at the Erasmus Hall High School. 

Despite the efforts of Miss Kate E. Turner, acting principal, and Charles B. 
Batchelor, in charge of boys' athletics at the school, to secure gymnasium facilities, 
the members of the Board of Education have done nothing. 

Exercise in Unfit Cellar. 

When a reporter for the World recently visited the school, a class of nearly one 
hundred boys, ranging in ages from fifteen to eighteen years, was taking physical 
training exercises in a small, damp, dark, low-ceilinged cellar, which has been con- 
demned by the Fire Department as " unfit for use." 

" We have about 1,500 boys in the school, who are compelled to take their 
' health ' exercises in this cellar twice a week," Mr. Batchelor said to the reporter. 
" At the beginning of the new term every boy must take these exercises every day, 
and unless we get a new gymnasium we will be unable to comply with the new ruling 
of the Board of Education as to physical training. 

" There is a wing of the new building which has not yet been completed, and it 
would be very easy to have a boys' gymnasium installed in the basement. 

" With so much talk about preparedness and compulsory militar} 7 training going 
on, it seems to me that provisions should be made to take care of the boys. This 
apology for a gymnasium was condemned by the Fire Department with the instruction 
'to be used only if necessary.' Did you ever hear of anything more absurd? As 
if we would think of using such a place unless it was necessary. 

"Something Must Be Done. 

". We have not any of the equipment here that is necessary for a boys' gymnasium. 
The only exercise that the boys take are breathing and floor exercises. Something 
must be done if we are expected to give our students the required physical training." 

The girls' gymnasium of Erasmus Hall is one of the most modern in any of the 
city's schools. Its equipment is in good condition, and the ventilation system is 
excellent. There are 2,000 girls in the school who take gymnasium work twice a 
week. 

Conference of Organized Labor on Industrial Education of the City of New 
York, March 5, 1917. 

Hon. Harry Robitzek, Chairman, Public Welfare Committee, Board of Aldermen. 
City Hall, New York City : . 

Dear Sir — In giving further consideration to the public hearing before your Com- 
mittee last Friday, and suggestions made by the many representatives of Mothers' 



228 

Clubs and Parents' Associations that had an opportunity to be heard, I am taking 
the liberty to suggest that you write to the following people for to send your Com- 
mittee whatever recommendations they may have for to guide your Committee in 
its work and improve school conditions. 

I am sure that the Teachers' Union of which Mr. H. R. Linville is President, 
70 Fifth Avenue, will be able to give you very valuable information as to the actual 
conditions existing in the public schools and as suggestions come from the teachers 
themselves, who are in a better position than anybody else to be the real judges of 
school conditions and also to suggest the necessary requirements for the improve- 
ment of our school system, I am sure that their recommendations will be valuable. 

In addition to that I would suggest that your Committee prepare a list of questions 
to be sent to every Commissioner of the Board of Education and every member of the 
Local School Boards asking them for records of their attendance at Board of Educa- 
tion meetings and committee meetings and also attendance at the Local School Board 
meetings and how often they have visited the public schools in their District during 
school hours and at times other than when there were special exercises and entertain- 
ments being given. Also ask them if they have attended or graduated from a public 
school and if they send their own children to public schools. 

Ask the members of the Local School boards what suggestions and recommenda- 
tions they would make to your Committee for the improvement of school conditions 
in their Districts ; how recommended, and what kind they have made during the past 
three years and what consideration was given to those suggestions and recommenda- 
tions by the Board of Education. Ask them if there is sufficient playground space, 
gymnasium, swimming pools and libraries and other necessary facilities connected 
with every school in their district. 

In addition to this I would also suggest that you prepare a question blank for the 
Principals of the Schools of this city to be filled out by them to show the number 
in each class and how many regular teachers and how many substitute teachers and 
whether the school has sufficient accommodations to properly take care of all the 
children. This question blank to also include the request for information as to 
gymnasiums, swimming pools and libraries along the same lines as the questions to 
the Local School boards. 

In this way you will be able to check how familiar the members of the Local 
School Boards are with the conditions in their districts. 

Find out in how many schools there are free medical and dental clinics, which are 
supported by charitable contributions. This should be a regular part of school equip- 
ment and taken care of by regularly assigned nurses and doctors of the Board of 
Health. 

Ask the Fire Department to make a report to your Committee on the result of 
investigations of the Fire Department as to fire risk conditions existing in the schools 
and the recommendations which that Department has made to the Board of Education. 
Also ask them for all the information about the fires which have occurred in the 
schools, the last year. 

This of course outlines a large amount of work. 

Thanking you for giving this matter your early consideration and assuring your 
Committee of the co-operation of our Unions, I remain, Yours very truly, 

P. J. BRADY, Secretary. 

The City of New York, Office of the City Clerk, Municipal Building, New York, 
March 8, 1917. 

P. J. Scully, Clerk. Frank J. Goodwin, 1st Deputy. 

lion. Harry Robitzek, Chairman. Committee on General Welfare, Room 11, City Hall, 
New York City : 

My dear Alderman — I herewith enclose letter, under date of March 5th from 
James P. Holland, Esq., residing at No. 211 East 45th street, Manhattan, who ap- 



229 

parently is very much interested in some matters now pending before your Committee, 
in relation to abuses now claimed to exist in the public schools of our municipality. 

He seems to be anxious to have hearings before your Committee on these matters, 
and as you are its Chairman, I send his letter to you for such action as you and the 
other members of the Committee may deem proper. Very truly yours, 

P. J. SCULLY, City Clerk. 

The New York State Federation of Labor, Affiliated with The American Federa- 
tion of Labor, office of James P. Holland, President, 211 E. 45th Street, New York, 
March 5, 1917. 
Hon. P. J. Scully, City Clerk, City Hall, New York City: 

Dear Sir — There was a hearing on Friday, March 2d, by your Committee, on the 
request of the Conference of Organized Labor on industrial Education, for the Board 
of Aldermen to investigate the conditions existing in our public schools and I am 
informed that a Mr. Bernard Nolan called attention to the fact that I was not 
present, and also that Secretary Brady of our Conference did not present the views 
of our conference or of Organized labor, in the letter which he filed with President 
Dowling of the Board of Aldermen on February 6th. 

In order that your records may be straightened and corrected, I herewith inform 
you that the letter on your records of the meeting of February 6th had my endorse- 
ment and approval, and Secretary was ordered by us to present this matter to you 
and if possible secure the hearing desired. 

Furthermore, the request of Organized Labor's Educational Conference of New 
York City had the approval and endorsement of the State Federation of Labor, and 
while I represented that organization in this conference, I also am regularly selected 
delegate of the Central Federated Union and have represented that organization in 
that conference. 

I hope that your Committee and the Board of Aldermen will go fully into this 
question so that the abuses we complain of will be changed at the earliest possible 
date and that the children in our schools will be furnished with equipment, facilities, 
teachers, etc., which they now lack for this purpose. 

I would have liked very much to have been present at your hearing, but unfortu- 
nately did not arrive in the City in time to attend. Can assure your Committee that 
at the other hearings, which we hope will be held, that I will be present and givfe 
personal endorsement to organized labor's letter of February 6th. 

Yours very truly, JAMES P. HOLLAND, President. 

Central Federated Union of Greater New York and Vicinity, Labor Temple, 243 

East 34th Street, New York, March 3, 1917. 
Hon. Harry Robitzek, Chairman, Public Welfare Committee, Board of Aldermen, 
City Hali; N. Y. C. : 

Dear Sir — The following is a copy of a letter sent to each member of the Welfare 
Committee of the Hon. Board of Aldermen. 

This copy is forwarded to you with the purpose of avoiding any misunderstanding 
and that you may have your record complete on this matter. 

Yours very truly, ERNEST BOHM, Cor. Sec, No. 210 E. 5th St.. N. Y. C. 

"N. Y., Mch. 1/17. 
Hon. Member of the Welfare Committee: 

Dear Sir — By direction of this body I desire to convey to you its decision that 
the program presented to the Hon. Board of Aldermen and your committee on 
Friday, Mch. lst/17, in the matter of education by Mr. Peter J. Brady and committee. 
was fully and unanimously approved and adopted by this body at its regular meeting 
Friday, Mch. lst/17. 



230 

Mr. Peter J. Brady and committee have our authority and confidence to act in 
that particular matter. 

Yours very truly, , Cor. Sec, No. 210 E. 5th St., N. Y. C." 

Allied Printing Trades Council, New York State, March 17, 1917. 
Hon. Harry Robitzek, Chairman, Public Welfare Committee, City Hall, New York 
City: 

Dear Sir — Enclosed find copy of a letter received from Commissioner Adamson, 
which explains itself. 

You will note that the Fire Commissioner appointed a special board to investi- 
gate fire conditions in the schools and make recommendations for the installation of 
the necessary fire prevention facilities and fire protection standards. 

I would suggest that your Committee ask the Fire Commissioner for his report 
of this 'Committee and if necessary later on to ask the Commissioner to appear 
before your Committee. 

I believe it would be advisable and important to find out from the Board of 
Education how many of the recommendations of the Committee appointed by the 
Fire Commissioner and other recommendations made by the Fire Commissioner for 
fire protection for the school children have been carried out and put into effect by 
the Board of Education. Yours very truly, P. J- BRADY. 

Fire Department. City of New York, March 16, 1917. 
Robert Adamson, Commissioner: 

Dear Mr. Brady — I have your letter of the 15th instant transmitting to me a 
copy of a letter which you have sent to President Dowling, of the Board of Alder- 
men, in regard to school facilities. I note what you say in your letter regarding the 
matter of fire prevention in the schools and also your suggestion that the Alder- 
manic Committee may eventually call on me to inform them of actual conditions. I 
shall be very ulad to furnish any information relating to the schools which is con- 
tained in our records and of course available to the aldermen. 

Your letter to President Dowling does not refer specifically to any school or 
schools where fire prevention measures are needed or regarding which information 
is desired. If you have any specific school in mind which you think should be given 
attention, I should be very glad indeed to have the necessary inspections made, if, 
indeed, they have not already been recently made by this department. 

As you are probably aware, I appointed a special board to inspect the schools 
consisting of Deputy Chief Beggin, Battalion Chief Dougherty and Captain Francis 
G. Riley, a former member of the Fire Department and now an inspector in the 
Fire Department. They spent several months inspecting the schools, reviewing all 
existing orders, and made them conform to a uniform standard of safety which 
was adopted, and they also drew up a complete code of safety structural and house- 
keeping standards in public schools, which code was jointly adopted by the Board 
of Education and by this department. Very truly yours, 

(Signed) ROBERT ADAMSON, Fire Commissioner. 

Department of Education, The City of New York, DeWitt Clinton High School, 
59th Street and Tenth Avenue, Borough of Manhattan. Francis H. J. Paul, Prin- 
cipal. New York, March 19, 1917. 

Mr. Harry Robitzek, Chairman Committee on Public Welfare, Board of Aldermen, 
New York City : 

Dear Sir — I see by the " Globe " that your Committee is about to investigate 
the City schools, and you are to pursue your investigations especially into the sub- 
jects of congestion, buildings, supplies, teachers, etc. I would particularly suggest 
to you that instead of having many public meetings where those who have an axe 



231 

to grind or those who like to put themselves before the public eye may address you 
on subjects which they have little actual knowledge, that you individual members 
come and visit the schools at regular school hours. Come to this High School, for 
example, any day between eleven and one-thirty and see how we manage to stow 
away 5,600 pupils in a building planned for 2,500. Do not present yourselves at the 
Principal's office, but just wander around the building, open doors and look into 
class rooms and see what actual conditions are, talk with some of the teachers about 
the amount of time they have for teaching, how much of their day they must devote 
to clerical work and all that sort of thing. In short, spend a day with your own 
children and see what they are up against, and see it with your own eyes. 

I will be very glad to be an unprejudiced pilot if you will honor me with a call. 

Yours truly, COLMAN D. FRANK, French Department, Room 400. 

N. Y,, March 21, 1917. 
Mr. Harry Robitzek, Aldermanic Chairman: 

Dear Sir — I am pleased to read in the N. Y. papers that you contemplate having 
meetings regarding school system, and also other evils in our municipal departments. 

I hope you will not be stopped by the influence of the money power, back of all 
the trouble. John D. Rockefeller is the cause of the conditions, and his catspaw 
Mayor Mitchel, who has to do as he is told. 

We need a fearless truthful man like yourself to fight such men. We also need 
you on Election day when we will make you the Mayor of this City. Mayor Mitchel 
forced one Justice Cropsey to stop an investigation on the west side deal. 

The N. Y. Central and most of the other big things in this city are owned by 
John D. Rockefeller. He is helping to ruin this city, and the public should be told 
such things. 

I am proud to know a man from the Bronx will help to expose the things that 
clique are doing with the public money. Thanking you, I am, very truly yours, 

MRS. M. J. ANDERSON, A Taxpayer. 

P. S. — Please let us know if you favor Women's Suffrage, because we want to 
vote for a man like you. 

Allied Printing Trades Council, New York State, March 27, 1917. 
Mr. John J. Flaherty., Committee Clerk, Board of Aldermen, City Hall, New York 
City: 

Dear Sir — I received your notice announcing the meetings of the Committee on 
General Welfare for Thursday, March 29th, April 5th and April 12th. 

You can be assured that Organized Labor will be well represented at these hear- 
ings. I would suggest that you send a notification to Mrs. P. F. Frost, President, 
Mothers' Council of Mothers' Clubs, 17 South Bond street, Mount Vernon, N. Y., 
and also to Mr. Gerald Griffin, President, The Federation of Parents' Associations, 
215th street, Isham Park, New York City, as both of these organizations are vitally 
interested in the administration of our educational system and they represent a large 
number of organizations throughout the city. 

Yours very truly, P. J. BRADY. 

Public Education Association of the City of New York, 8 West 40th street, New 
York City, March 29th, 1917. 
Hon. Frank L. Dowling, 401 W. 24th street, City : 

My Dear Sir — The Public Education Association has noted with interest the plan 
of the Board of Aldermen to hold public hearings in order to gather information 
relative to conditions in the New York City schools. For over twenty years the 
Association has devoted itself exclusively to the improvement of public education in 
New York City and welcomes every effort by the public and the authorities to secure 
reliable data in furtherance of that end. 



232 

Among the activities of the public schools which will come before your com- 
mittee for consideration is the so-called "duplicate school," or Gary plan of organiza- 
tion. The Association, as you are doubtless aware, has been greatly interested in the 
adaptation of this plan, to the city's schools in order that the children may enjoy 
the enriched opportunities which its flexible program provides. 

In order to make an intelligent stand upon the matter, we have gathered informa- 
tion regarding the success of the Gary Plan in New York City and in other parts of 
the country, and will be pleased to place this material at the disposal of your 
committee. 

We have in our possession, also, several splendid moving picture films of the 
Gary schools in action, which, we believe, would be illuminating to you as a demon- 
stration of just how the children live and work under this type of education. We 
should be very glad to arrange for an exhibition of these pictures in the Aldermanic 
Chamber, or elsewhere at your convenience. 

The Association believes, furthermore, that your committee can get at the actual 
facts regarding the Gary Plan only through a first hand study of the schools in 
New York City which are operating on that basis, and would, therefore, respectfully 
suggest that the committee reach no decision in this matter on the basis of hearings 
alone without first visiting the schools which are already so organized in New York 
City. It has been the general experience in New York City and elsewhere that persons 
have frequently been skeptical of the value of the plan before adoption or during the 
early stages of reorganization, when difficulties of adjustment are naturally experi- 
enced, but after the plan have been in full operation this feeling has largely disap- 
peared, and those who have been opposed have become favorable toward it. To those 
who are familiar with public hearings, it is a recognized fact that it is usually the 
dissenters who appear in the largest numbers. In order that your committee may not 
unwittingly conduct an ex [>arlc investigation we therefore trust that the members 
Of the committee and as many other members of the Board of Aldermen as possible 
will visit personally the schools in which the plan is in operation. We would suggest 
in this connection that your committee also ascertain, through direct inquiry in the 
form of specific questions, just what the principals of the schools in which the plan 
is in operation think of it. particularly in comparison with the traditional type of 
organization in operation before its organization. 

Since the introduction of the duplicate school type of organization in New York 
City two or three years ago, other cities in the country have experimented along similar 
Inn s, It would lie helpful to your committee, no doubt, to learn of the experience 
of these cities, and we would suggest that persons like Superintendent Davidson of 
Pittsburg, Superintendent Eldred of Troy, Superintendent Shepherd of Passaic, and 
Mr. Pitkin, Principal of the Cleveland School, Newark, N. J., be invited to address 
your Committee relative to the operation of this plan in their respective communities. 

Before the close of your inquiry, the Public Education Association would be 
pleased to have an opportunity to present directly to you its own viewpoint and the 
viewpoint of those with whom it has been co-operating in furthering the extension 
of this type of education in New York City. We are strongly of the opinion that, 
when the essential structural changes and equipment are fully completed, the type of 
education offered by the schools reorganized on the duplicate-school plan in New 
York City will furnish a richer type of education than at present, and we are confi- 
dent that an impartial study of the question by the Board of Aldermen will be of the 
greatest service in accomplishing the result speedily. Very truly yours, 

HOWARD W. NUDD. Director. 

Also letter same as the last above, dated March 28, 1917, addressed to Hon. 
Harry Robitzek, Welfare Committee, Board of Aldermen, 830 East 163d street. New 
York City. 



233 

Also typewritten statement by Hon. Bird S. Coler, as follows : 

"Gentlemen — You will please believe me, when I say that my presence here 
to-day is due to the conviction that democracy is moribund in the United States at 
the present time. There may be great and definite issues upon which the reasoned 
judgment of the people acts determinatively, but they are very few. Ninety-nine 
one-hundredths of the policies of government are determined by other than elective 
officers ; ninety-nine per cent, of the power that moves government is in the hands 
of unofficial incorporated bodies serving a definite interest and moving forward in 
concert to the rule of the majority in all matters of importance by a consciously 
organized governing class. We have lived as a democracy for one hundred and 
forty years. We have been deceived in matters of government not infrequently; 
but always we have held jealously the power of self-government as not only a right, 
but an obligation of citizenship. We still hold to forms and old names, but within 
a generation a tremendous change has been effected in the realities. What matters 
the name? What does it not matter that an agent of the Rockefeller Foundation 
acts like a Russian Grand Duke? What does it not matter that through one instru- 
ment a Russian system of espionage is imposed upon a free people, and through 
another the people are affected to a belief that this tyrannous abuse of power is in 
their interest? Facts are the things that count. I do not have to tell any of you 
gentlemen who may be the parents of children that school conditions in New York 
City to-day are absolutely chaotic. I do not have to tell you that the Board of 
Education, which even the most cynical of political bosses left untouched, has been 
honeycombed with politics so that the appointing power can boast that its members 
hold their places upon their pledges to support the political policies he has promul- 
gated. I do not need to tell you that the grab for the jobs in this department of 
the city government has become a shameful thing. I do not need to tell you that 
while out of town experts without experience have been paid great sums to pass upon 
the defects of the system the defects have multiplied a thousand times so that 
while there are mountains of reports there are no school facilities for half the chil- 
dren, and each teacher has more pupils to teach than it is physically possible to 
teach. I need not tell you that the old part time evil has been transformed into a 
system, and millions are being expended upon an experiment whose futile conclu- 
sions is obvious to common sense from the beginning. In order that favorites of a 
movement all too powerful, all too sinister, all too hostile to popular government, 
may swell with flatulent and windy importance and get ten thousand dollar jobs on 
the city payroll. You know it. It is notorious. It is so common in experience that 
most of our deluded people seem to think it a necessary evil like a low temperature, 
or a rainy day or a thunderstorm, or some other discomfort inseparable from human 
life. 

How fs this brought about? Why is it that people passionately desirous of the 
education of their children accept the mockery upon which the taxpayers expend their 
millions? Simply because the same influence that is striving to control all thought, 
that strove with amazing success to control all business, is grasping the control of the 
schools so that the people shall know only enough to be docile under the drive of 
their masters, and productive for the benefit of the newly developed aristocracy. 

Need I say to you that if we are to have a democracy in this country we must 
have free minds, and if we are to have free minds we must have free schools? Need 
I point out to you that Dr. Abraham Flexner of the Board of Education, of the 
Rockefeller General Education Board, is at the head of the movement to cut all that 
is elevating and all that is broadening to the mind and inspiring to the spirit out 
of the education of the people of the country? Need I point out to you how this 
interest has worked its agents into all our government, state, city, national, so that it 
makes the people pay for the propagandist literature that supplies the people, that 



234 

chloroforms them until it has fastened its shackles upon them and harnessed them 
to its great machine? This is a time of world war, and this is a great world-wide 
conspiracy against freedom, a conspiracy that has already its system of kept colleges 
where its doctors of philosophy, its doctors of medicine, its professors of every 
art and science are turned out on its payroll to back its schemes with their authority, 
to put the mind of America in chains. This meeting here is part of the fight that 
an awakening democracy is making for its life. In Washington there is also an 
awakening. It was discovered a year ago that the Department of Agriculture was 
filled up with the parasites of the Rockefeller and Carnegie Foundations, their paid 
doctors and paid professors. This year the Federal Bureau of Education is under 
the notice of some of the senators, and I quote from a speech delivered in the 
Senate by Senator Chamberlain. He had discovered that some one hundred and 
fifty professors and doctors foremost among whom was Prof. Judd of the Rocke- 
feller Chicago University, were on the payroll of the government at $1 a year each. 
He wondered why until he learned that the views of these men on all social ques- 
tions and particularly upon popular education were being sent out through the country 
under the franking privilege and with the authority of government publications. And 
referring to the Carnegie and Rockefeller Foundations he said in a pleading for a 
general investigation : 

"Mr. President, these institutions are like Providence. 'They move in a mysteri- 
ous way their wonders to perform.' I am going to call your attention to another of 
their activities along the same lines to show you that they are moving with military 
precision all along the line to get control of the education of the children of the 
land. I venture to say that if you put the educational system of this country in 
the hands of any particular class of individuals in two generations they can prac- 
tically change the form of our government by educating the children along certain 
lines which the ideals of democracy would oppose if the people thoroughly under- 
stood the situation. 

"It all links together, this matter of government. It means a Rockefeller control 
of your schools, a Rockefeller control of your bodies through medical departments 
and finally a Rockefeller control of the government and a Rockefeller ideal of 
Neitche supermen who are too superior to be bound by the 'slave morality' of the 
common herd, and who must be fed and developed by the toil of the docile many. 
That is what Rockefeller control of your schools means." 

30 Church Street, New York City, May 29th, 1917. 
To the Board of Aldermen, Committee Meeting, Borough Hall, 3d ave. and 177th st., 
Bronx, N. Y. : 

Gentlemen — Referring to your request for information regarding double session 
(Gary Schools) installed in the Borough of The Bronx, during the past two years 
or more. An investigation shows that most of the schools under this plan have 
the following programme: Work, study, recreation and play. 

Work — The work consists of the regular academic courses which has always 
been done, plus prevocational work, consisting of printing, carpentering, commer- 
cial course, cooking, etc. In regard to this prevocational work, which has been 
tried in other countries (see references Educational Cyclopedia at Public Library, 
42d street). In these places where they have full equipment the work has been 
very successful and beneficial. 

On the other hand, contrast the Gary plan as it has been installed in most of 
the duplicate schools in New York City. After two years' endeavor: Printing rooms, 
no equipment; the commercial rooms, no typewriters; sewing rooms, none or small 
equipment; cooking rooms, small; forty children for one (1) teacher; not enough 
stoves; dirty clothes hanging on the walls; carpenter shops, too small a space, little 
or no equipment. 



235 

By means of auditorium work and play period, the New York City system has 
been able to put in double session time, because it adds 100 minutes or one hour 
and forty minutes to part time system. 

Study — Study in regular periods is carried on as usual in all schools not under 
(Gary Plan). 

Recreation and Play — Is taken up in auditorium and yard work. In the audi- 
toriums the conditions are about all the same. In one or more of the newer school 
buildings, conditions are improved. However, the seats are for higher classes or 
adults. Where the small children sit for the fifty-minute period their feet and limbs 
become numb, as their feet do not touch the floor. The children have to carry their 
outside wraps and books with them; in most cases sitting on them. On account of 
the height of the backs of chairs, most of the children cannot hear or see the 
Programme. Then there are too many grades assembled together and not enough 
teachers. Even in best schools the ventilation is poor, and on damp days dis- 
agreeable odors arise from the mass of clothing. The recent movement of the State 
of New York has shown the value of organized play. Gymnastics is carried on 
about the same as it always has been in the schools. Athletics is not possible to any 
great extent in New York City on account of limited space conditions. 

Organized play is carried on under the following bad conditions as a rule, there 
is not enough space. The clothing and books have to be carried by the children 
or put on the floors of yards, on window sills, and on steam heaters. Some of the 
children have their wraps on and carry their books in bags on their backs during 
the entire period. Again, too many classes are assembled with two or three teachers. 
This does not permit the much desired organized play to be carried on successfully. 

Fire Drill — So far as can be ascertained, no fire drills can be carried on or given, 
where the children are changing rooms or with a full school attendance. 

Lateness and Truancy — Has increased owing to the difficulty in keeping count of 
the pupils in some schools. 

Lack of Discipline — It is shown in the excited actions and faces of the children 
by not enough teachers or time given in the shifting periods. Too much self- 
government is dangerous and destroys home discipline in all directions. 

School supplies are not sufficient, and with the present manner of using books', 
they will soon be useless. 

For Teachers — All business houses, even sweat shops, are endeavoring to give the 
best possible conditions to employees to promote efficiency. What does The City of New 
York do for the teachers? A rest period of fifty minutes is under the Gary Plan to 
teachers. How do they spend this time and where? Either observing some other 
class teacher at work (in some schools they cannot do this), or finding a table or 
chair if possible and do work for the following day. Their lunch or retiring rooms 
are small- and unsanitary. 

Schools visited in Bronx are Nos. 45, 50, 53 and 43, and conditions found are 
a blot upon the school system of the greatest city in the world, as relates to bad 
sanitation in close proximity to lunch rooms for teachers. 

Results accomplished so far are : The report after two years of Gary School 
Plan, one school not fully equipped after the expenditure of $750,000 for this 
school and for this school the new annex is not complete or ready for use. We 
feel that these conditions call for some investigation and remedies be made. There- 
fore, we present again our resolution made over a year ago, resolving that the 
Mothers' Council of Public Schools of New York record its disapproval of exten- 
sion of the Gary Plan to schools other than those for which it has been author- 
ized until the experiment now under way has demonstrated its value and success 
to the satisfaction of the Board of Superintendents, Teachers and Parents. Re- 
spectfully submitted, 

THE MOTHERS' COUNCIL OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CITY OF NEW 
YORK, Mrs. P. F. Frost, President. 



236 

The Mothers' Council of Public Schools of The City of New York. 
To President of Mothers' Clubs and Parents' Associations: 

The Mothers' Council of New York Public Schools was formed with the idea 
that we can work with better success together than as individuals, since unity makes 
for strength. 

The Council desires for its members the Mothers' Clubs and Parents' Associa- 
tions of the Public Schools of New York City and individual members of the same. 

We wish to promote children's welfare by arousing the interest of mothers in 
pure food, proper housing and sanitary living conditions. Since libraries, recrea- 
tion centers and playgrounds are requisite for the development of educated minds 
and strong bodies, we heartily favor their establishment and extension in connec- 
tion with public schools. 

Meetings are held at 2 P. M. on the second Tuesday of each month from October 
to May at Music Hall over the main waiting room in Grand Central Terminal, New 
York City. Dues are two dollars per annum for each club, and one dollar per 
annum for each individual member of the same. 

We earnestly desire your co-operation and support. Respectfully yours, 
MOTHERS COUNCIL OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF THE CITY OF NEW 
YORK. Mr?. H. Jacobi, Secretary, 1037 Forest Avenue. Evergreen, L. I.. X. Y. C. 
Mrs. P. F. Frost. President. 17 South Bond Street, Mount Vernon, X. Y. 
Mr?. W. F. Ryersox. Treasurer, 9 Satterlee Avenue. Middle Village. X. Y. 

17 South Bond Street, Mount Vernon. N. V.. March 22. 1917. 
Mr. Harry Robitzek. Chairman City Committee, Hearing on P. S. C, X. Y. : 

My Dear Mr. Robitzek — The members of the Mothers' Council of P. S. of C 
X. Y., wish me to state that they feel only persons who have children in the schools 
in the past or present should be allowed to speak at the hearing on 29th of March. 

Can we be permitted to speak without interruptions such as were allowed at the 
City Hall? 

Did you see the Evening Mail of March 16th? An article by R. C. Dorr. If I do 
speak at all my report will be on Bronx schools where I have visited. 

If I am a non-resident, how about Mr. Wirt of Gary, Ind. ? 

Respectfully submitted, Mrs. P. F. FROST, President, the Mothers' Council of 
P. S. of C. X. Y. 

Cir amber or Commerce of the State of Xew York. 
At the regular monthly meeting of the Chamber of Commerce of the State of 
Xew York held March 1. 1917, the following reports, submitted by the Committee on 
Commercial Education were unanimously adopted : 

Bill Amending Educational Laws. 
To the Chamber of Commerce: 

The schools of the State are the product of a series of enactments almost in- 
numerable and constituting a formidable volume in themselves dating from 1829. 
These have been found more or less contradictory and well nigh impossible of in- 
terpretation to those who must work under them. The State Board of Education 
has recognized this complex and unfortunate condition, and for several years past has 
attempted to secure the passage of a new law intended to codify existing laws and 
to permit boards of education to do certain things within their proper function with- 
out appealing annually to the Legislature for special permissive legislation. The 
codified act in brief is clear and understandable ; and while it lays out no material 
changes in existing methods of school management and government, and even carries 
with it some of the errors which your Committee deems seriously detrimental to 



237 

progress, it clears the ground for future work, and is, therefore, entitled to the 
support of all interested in sound education. Therefore, your Committee presents 
the following preamble and resolutions : 

Whereas, agreeably to the recommendations of the Governor in his message to the 
Legislature on January 3, 1917, and approved by the Chamber on February 1, there has 
been introduced into the Legislature a bill entitled, "An Act to Amend the Educational 
Law, etc.," and known as the Senate Bill No. 551, which act has been drawn up under 
the direction of the University of the State of New York and which by its provisions 
codifies in simple and straightforward language an innumerable quantity of existing 
laws, dating from 1829 to 1916; therefore, be it 

Resolved, That the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York strongly 
urges the immediate passage of said bill as an important step in the direction of 
progress. 

Resolved further, That copies of the above preamble and resolution be sent to 
the Governor, the members of both houses of the Legislature, the Mayor of the City 
of New York and to educational authorities in this State. 

Resolved further, That the Committee on Commercial Education be authorized 
to appear at any hearing on said bill to present the views of the Chamber. 

HOWARD C. SMITH, Chairman; WILLIAM H. NICHOLS, ELIHU C. 
CHURCH, JULIO F. SOR2ANO, L. LOUIS SCHAEFER, ALEXANDER C. 
HUMPHREYS, LIONEL SUTRO ; Committee on Commercial Education. 

Opposing Mandatory School Legislation. 

Whereas, A bill, Senate No. 413, has been introduced in the State Legislature 
amending the present law, which provides for the use of school buildings for public 
library purposes for social, civic and recreational meetings, for polling places, etc., at 
the discretion and under the supervision of the school authorities ; by making it 
mandatory for the school authorities to organize and conduct community centers for 
civic purposes, civic forums, etc., and that the funds necessary for such purposes 
shall be provided by the school authorities, therefore be it 

Resolved, That the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York, while not 
opposing the wider use of school buildings and property for civic purposes under the 
control and management of the proper authorities, does oppose the mandatory features 
of said bill, Senate No. 413, and protests against any legislation which would compel, 
authorize, organize or conduct civic and community organizations or forums at 
public expense ; and be it further 

Resolved, That copies of this preamble and resolution be sent to the Governor 
and members of the State Legislature. 

HOWARD C. SMITH, Chairman; WILLIAM H. NICHOLS, ELIHU C. 
CHURCH, JULIO F. SORZANO, L. LOUIS SCHAEFER, ALEXANDER C. 
HUMPHREYS, LIONEL SUTRO; Committee on Commercial Education. 

Attest, Charles T. Gwynne, Secretary. 

EUGENIOUS H. OUTERBRIDGE, President. 

New York, March 2, 1917. 

Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York. 
At the regular monthly meeting of the Chamber of Commerce of the State of 
New York, held February 1, 1917, the following report presented by its Committee on 
Commercial Education was unanimously adopted : 

Revision of Educational Laws. 
To the Chamber of Commerce: 

Your Committee on Commercial Education has noted with interest that particular 
portion of the Governor's Message of January 3rd last, which relates to city schools 
reading as follows : 



238 

It appears that there are nearly three hundred special acts, extending over a period 
from 1829 to date, relating to the organization and administration of the school 
system in the several cities in the State. Many of these laws are antiquated and nearly 
all of them contain so many restrictive features that they obstruct and interfere with 
progressive school administration, instead of facilitating the transaction of the busi- 
ness affairs of the schools. Boards of Education from various cities are constantly 
appealing to your honorable body for special legislation which will enable them to do 
certain things in connection with the schools which they should possess the power to 
do without coming to the Legislature to obtain the legal authority to perform such 
acts. 

It is recommended therefore that one simple, clear, comprehensive statute, repeal- 
ing these special laws be enacted applicable to all cities, which shall confer broad 
powers upon city boards of education and shall give such boards freedom and inde- 
pendent e commensurate with their responsibility. Only the essential features of a 
school organization should be written in a statute, but sufficient power should be con- 
ferred upon the board of education of each city to enable that body to organize and 
administer the schools under its management in accordance with the needs and wishes 
of the people of the City which such board represents. 

It appears that our municipal educational systems are being conducted under a 

plicated network of laws, including special and general acts supplementing and 
modifying original statutes from time to time during a period of eighty-seven years. 

The labors of your committee to date have been confined in large measure to 
matters and conditions covered by the Governor's remarks, and this Committee is 
firmly convinced of the wisdom of his recommendations on this subject; therefore, 
be it 

Resolved, That the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York earnestly 
supports the proposals of the Governor of the State of New York to the Legislature 
looking to the codification, condensation and simplifying of the laws relating to educa- 
tion under the auspices of our municipalities. 

HOWARD C. SMITH, Chairman; WILLIAM H. NICHOLS, ELIHU C. 
CHURCH. JULIO F. SORZANO, J. LOUIS SCHAEFER, ALEXANDER C. 
HUMPHREYS, LIONEL SUTRO, Committee on Commercial Education. 

Attest, Charles T. Gwynne, Secretary. 

EUGEXIOUS H. OUTERBRIDGE, President. 

New York, Feb. 3, 1917. 

Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York, March 30th, 1917. 

Honorable H kRRY Robttzek, Chairman, Welfare Committee. Board of Aldermen, New 
York: 
Dear Sir — At the request of Mr. Lionel Sutro, a member of our Committee on 
Commercial Education, I take pleasure in handing to you herein copies of recent 
reports from our committee in relation to the revision of educational laws. 

Very truly yours. JERE D. TAMBLYN, Librarian. 

Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York. 
Sixty-five Liberty Street, New York. 

Hon. Harry Robetzek, Chairman, Welfare Committee of the Board of Aldermen, 
City Hall. New York City: 

My Dear Mr. Robitzek — Must admit I was delighted with the hearing in the 
Bronx yesterday evening, and hope to be present at future hearings, if possible, in 
order to gather reliable information for the Committee of which I have the honor 
of being a member. 



239 

If not too bold on my part, I might recommend at the next hearing you request 
the people who appear to be more definite in their condemnation or praise of the 
innovations in our present school system. 

From personal investigation, I can assure you that statements were made at the 
hearing that are not facts. 

May I suggest that your honored Committee visit an old-time school and one now 
known as the Gary system school, and see for yourselves what the difference is 
and so come to your own conclusions as to its merit. 

Would also suggest that you inquire from the Board of Education, or elsewhere, 
as to the fear of the teachers of being dismissed for expressing their views; - at the 
same time inquiring how many teachers were dismissed for any reason watsoever 
within the last ten years, and what these reasons were. It may give you an interesting 
light on the question you are investigating. Yours very truly, 

LIONEL SURTO, on the Committee on Commercial Education, 2 West 45th 
Street, N. Y. 

My Dear Mr. Robitzek — I hope you will give a few minutes to Miss Ellen C. 
Garrigues, of De Witt Clinton High School, to speak for the High School Teachers' 
Association. 

FRED C. WHITE, of the Morris High School, President, High School 
Association. 

TTie High School Teachers' Association, Fred C. White, President, New York, 
N. Y., March IS, 1917. 
Hon. Harry Robitzek, Board of Aldermen, City Hall, New York, N. Y. : 

My Dear Mr. Robitzek — Permit me to thank you for your courtesy in giving 
the privilege of the floor to Miss Ellen E. Garrigues at your recent hearing on school 
administration. 

I am enclosing herewith a copy of the brief prepared by our special committee 
on the evils of very large high schools. 

I shall appreciate the favor if you will let me know in future when hearings are 
to be held on school matters. Very sincerely yours, 

FRED C. WHITE President. 
(Copy.) 

His Honor the Mayor, the Honorable Board of Aldermen, The City of New York: 

Gentlemen — The Association of High School Teachers of the City of New York 
respectfully submits for your consideration the following propositions : 

Whereas, in the last ten years the increase in high school attendance has been 
over 200 per cent. ; and 

Whereas, according to the recommendation of Superintendent Maxwell and of the 
"interim Report," published in 1912 by the Committee on School Inquiry, the members 
of which were John Purroy Mitchel, William A. Prendergast and Cyrus C. Miller, 
high schools should not accommodate more than 1,500 students ; and 

Whereas, at present, of the twenty-three high schools in existence, sixteen ex- 
ceed 1,500 in number, fourteen have 3,000 students and four from 4,000 to 5,500 in 
one building and under one head ; and 

Whereas, eleven of these large schools have double or overlapping sessions, at- 
tended by over 40,000 students; and 

Whereas, by a recent survey of room space we have been led to suppose that a 
still larger group in single schools are contemplated by the authorities we desire to 
call your attention to some of the dangers and difficulties of instructions and admin- 
istration in very large schools, especially in those schools where the double or over- 
lapping sessions have increased the number of pupils to 150 or 200 per cent, of the 
number which the schools were originally built to accommodate. 



240 

The dangers and difficulties incident to double or overlapping sessions group them- 
selves under two heads, those affecting the student as an individual and those affect- 
ing the entire school body. Individual difficulties are as follows: Students of both 
early and late sessions can receive little personal aid from the teachers before or 
after school. Weak pupils especially suffer. Retardation costs money, both to the 
city and to parents. There is waste of time, money and sometimes danger in travel- 
ling to these schools where large numbers are concentrated. Students may not at- 
tend school games or other activities in common, and in some schools sports and clubs 
have been in part eliminated for this reason. During the overlapping periods danger 
to life and limb on crowded stairways and in halls is great. Should a boy or girl 
fall during a fire drill or be seized with a fainting or epileptic fit serious danger of 
trampling would arise. 

Boys and girls compelled to come in the late session suffer more serious indi- 
vidual difficulties. They work into and through the hours from four to five when 
fatigue and nervous depletion are greatest. They are seriously handicapped in out- 
door play when at home in the morning rather than in the afternoon. At that hour 
girls help at home at times when the congestion of travel is greatest, which is especi- 
ally unfortunate for young girls. During the Winter months it is dark when these 
trips are made. Many boys are prevented from working afternoons and so from sup- 
porting themselves throughout high school. The undesirability of the afternoon 
session provokes deceit and the use of undue influence to effect changes to the early 
session. The pupils in the afternoon session are likely to lose interest and school 
allegiance. School life is made less attractive to them. 

The difficulties which affect the school as a whole may be considered as those 
which have to do with the use of the building. School administration is made diffi- 
cult by the inability of principal and single heads of departments to properly supervise 
and unify a school from eight o'clock in the morning until five o'clock in the after- 
noon. These difficulties are fully discussed in the Interim Report of 1912. Prin- 
cipals and heads of departments break down under such a strain. Unity of the school 
is broken by double school and departmental meetings. There is a general decrease 
in cohesion and esprit de corps. The' difficulty of making school programs is aug- 
mented by the number of transfers demanded by parents for children in late session 
in one school, in order to place two hundred pupils in the crowded earlier session, the 
shifting of teachers and classes necessitates changes for at least two thousand stu- 
dents. Classes in the early session are crowded. Assemblies of the whole school 
are impossible. Study halls are overcrowded. Students of the overlapping session 
have no rooms to which to report. They must assemble in basements or galleries or 
stairways or lunchrooms. They interrupt classes already in session when disposing 
of wraps, etc. 

Lastly, the building or plant is overused and abused. In three of the largest 
schools where double sesions are in practice night schools are also held, some seven 
thousand pupils using the building each day. The auditoriums are also used during 
the entire day and also almost every evening for study halls, general audiences, meet- 
ings and choruses. Almost no time is given in which to stir, clean, or repair the 
building properly. The buildings are swept while school is in session. Plumbing is 
overused. There is not time nor money to make the most necessary repairs. Jani- 
torial forces are not sufficiently increased with the increased use of buildings. The 
general wear and tear causes expensive plants to degenerate rapidly, and endangers 
the health and proper ideals of cleanliness of all young people concerned. But the 
greatest misfortune for pupils in these large schools is the life in the crowd. Far 
from providing a fitting environment for the welfare of the growing individual, such 
schools offer him only an extension of the crowded life of the city, not unlike that 
offered by the present transportation facilities. In such an atmosphere individuality, 
good manners, and to a degree good morals can but suffer, and 



241 

Whereas the Bureau of Attendance believes education so important a deterrent 
of criminal and indigent tendencies in the young that it is seeking to extend the age 
of compulsory attendance from 16 to 18 years in the case of those not otherwise 
employed. 

Be It Resolved, That Junior High Schools to accommodat not more than 1,500 
pupils be established in various parts of the city in properly equipped buildings of 
their own, and taught by teachers licensed to teach high school subjects. Such schools 
would be of benefit to the adolescent and would lessen the congestion in senior high 
schools. 

Be It Further Resolved, That if the present conditions are not relieved by the 
establishment of Junior High Schools, that more senior high schools be formed and 
more buildings built. 

ELLEN E. GARRIGUES, ROSE GOERTNER, DELA P. MUSSEY, JOHN 
LOUGHRAN, SIMON L. LIPPNER, Committee. 

Note. — Washington Irving High School is an exception to this statement. 

February 16, 1917. 
The Honorable the Board of Education: 

Gentlemen — In compliance with section 1088 of the Charter of the City of New 
York, Local School Board 26 hereby submits the following semi-annual report for 
the half-year ending December 31, 1916: 

Register — The register of the district on December 31 was 21,250, an increase of 
664 in the last six months. 

Congestion — There is serious congestion in Public School 32, which should be 
immediately relieved by hiring temporary quarters or by the erection of portable 
buildings. Every class in this school is on the double shift. There are only 1,699 
sittings, and the register is 3,786. The number of children on part time is 2,751. 
About 1,000 children in the first year are on a four-hour day, but according to the 
by-laws this is full time. The registers by grades are as follows : 

7B, 48; 7A, 50; 6B, 43.5; 6A, 52.5; 5B, 47.5; 5A, 51.4; 4B. 50; 4A, 47; 3B, 50.5; 
3A, 49.7; 2B, 48.3; 2A, 48.4; IB, 50; 1A, 50. 

Accommodations Needed — In addition to the above, we need the following: 

1. 179th St., near 3d Avenue; new site and building. 

2. Public School 13; new site and building; duplication; $3,500. 

This Board has several times recommended a school near 180th St., west of 3d Ave- 
nue. Such a school would naturally be expected to take care of territory bounded as 
follows: North, 183d St.; east, 3d Avenue; south, 179th St.; west, Webster Avenue. 

This is not an extensive territory, and a. considerable portion of it is occupied for 
industrial purposes. To the south we have the annex of Public School 4 (176th St. 
and Washington Ave.), which may some day become and independent duplicate 
school. On the west is a natural barrier in the shape of a high ridge or cliff. On 
the north is Public School 5, capacity 30 classes, which some time will have to be 
replaced by a larger structure. 

It would seem, therefore, that a small school capable of accommodating, say 40 
or 50 classes on the duplicate plan, is sufficient for all time in the neighborhood of 
180th St., West of 3d Ave. 

We have never recommended an addition to Public School 41. The Congestion is 
not in 41, but in 13. The new site should be located about half-way between 41 and 
21, east of White Plains Ave. It will be all right to spend $3,500 to duplicate the 
old school while we are waiting for the new. But it must not be supposed that the 
duplication will oflfer a permanent solution of our problem without a new building. 



242 

In ascertaining growth of population, 13 and 21 must be taken together, as we 
have been relieving 13 by allowing 21 to grow from 4B to 6B, on account of a new 
addition to 21. The figures are as follows: 

January, 1911. January, 1917. 

Public School 13 1,790 1,907 

Public School 21 588 1,061 



2,348 2,968 



Increase, 620, or 26 per cent. 

This, however, is no criterion of what will happen as a result of opening the 
new subway on White Plains Ave. in a few months. Yours very truly, 

GEO. W. M. CLARK, Secretary, 88 East 236th St. 

Department of Education, Office of the Principal of Public School No. 54, 
Borough of the Bronx, April 12, 1917. 
Hon. Harry Rohitzf.k, 830 E. 163d St., The Bronx: 

Dear Sir — It would be a very fine thing in my judgment for my school, if Chisolm 
Street from Intervale ave. to Stebbins ave. were closed to traffic every school day 
from 8.30 a. m. to 5.30 p. m., so that the block in question could be used for play 
purposes by the pupils attending the school. This can be done without working any 
hardship to the people of the neighborhood, for this particular block contains scarcely 
any houses and is very little used by vehicles. 

Any interest you take in the matter and any effort you make to have my request 
granted will be gratefully appreciated not only by the teachers of the school and 

If, but also by the pupils and their parents. 

May I hope to hear from you in the near future with regard to this proposition? 

With best wishes for vour health and happiness, I am, sincerely yours, 

(Sgd.) WILLIAM FLAHERTY. 

New York, March 30, 1917. 
lion. HARRY RoBITZI k, Chairman, General Welfare Committee of the Board of Aldcr- 
■ men. City Hall, N. V.: 

Sir — I appeared before your Committee in the Borough Hall of the Borough 
of the lironx on Thursday evening. March 29. 1917, as the President and representa- 
tive of the Parents' Association of the Walton School, P. S. No. 30, 141st st. and 
Brook avenue, Bronx, but owing to the limited time allowed me I was unable to 
describe fully to your committee the operations of the duplicate school system in this 
school. I therefore beg to submit herewith my report on the operation of this 
system as it is now being, and will be, operated when the alterations are completed 
in the school building. 

In September, 1916, the system was placed in operation and continued until 
1 lecember, 1910, under great disadvantages, owing to the lack of the proper facili- 
ties In December, 1916, the alterations to the building were commenced, and are 
still in progress, and we hope to see them completed before June 1st next. 

Under the complete system there will be in operation two full and complete 
schools in one building, to be known as the "X" and the "Y" schools, both 
containing all grades from 1-A to 8-B, inclusive. The entire school consists of 12 
classes, containing over 2,500 children, and there are, therefore, 36 classes assigned 
to each school. School commences at 8.30 a. m., and continues until 3.30 p. m., with 
a full hour for lunch. The lunch period is divided so that the "X" school is dis- 



243 

missed for lunch at 11.40 a. m., and return at 12.40 p. m. The "Y" school is dis- 
missed for lunch at 12.40 p. m. and return at 1.40 p. m. Thus the building is in 
continued use during the entire school day. The system is in operation for all 
classes from S-A to 8-B, inclusive, with the exception that the Auditorium and 
Gymnasium are not as yet ready for use. Classes below S-A are now on part time, 
divided into morning and afternoon sessions, but the backward pupils in the after- 
noon session are given special instructions in the morning by the regular teachers, 
and vice versa. 

As an illustration to show that the essential three " R's " are not sacrificed for 
the so-called activities, I give you below the weekly program taken from a pupil in 
the S-B grade : 

Monday— 9 to 9.40, arithmetic; 9.40 to 10.20, history; 10.20 to 11, library; 11 
to 11.40, English; 11.40 to 12.40, lunch; 12.40 to 1.20, sewing; 1.20 to 2, sewing; 2 to 
2.40, study; 2.40 to 3.20, English. 

Tuesday— 9 to 9.40, arithmetic; 9.40 to 10.20, study; 10.20 to 11, music and gym- 
nastics; 11 to 11.40, English; 11.40 to 12.40, lunch; 12.40 to 1.20, sewing; 1.20 to 2, 
sewing; 2 to 2.40, English; 2.40 to 3.20, geography. 

Wednesday— 9 to 9.40, arithmetic; 9.40 to 10.20, English; 10.20 to 11, library: 11 
to 11.40, English; 11.40 to 12.40, lunch; 12.40 to 1.20, sewing; 1.20 to 2, sewing; 2 to 
2.40, study; 2.40 to 3.20, history. 

Thursday — 9 to 9.40, arithmetic; 9.40 to 10.20, music and gymnastics; 10.20 to 
11, study; 11 to 11.40, English; 11.40 to 12.40, lunch; 12.40 to 1.20, sewing; 1.20 to 2, 
sewing; 2 to 2.40, geography; 2.40 to 3.20, English. 

Friday— 9 to 9.40, history; 9.40 to 10.20, music and gymnastics; 10.20 to 11. 
English; 11 to 11.40, study; 11.40 to 12.40, lunch; 12.40 to 1.20, sewing; 1.20 to 2, 
sewing; 2 to 2.40, arithmetic; 2.40 to 3.20, English. 

From this you can readily see that 40 minutes are devoted daily, or a total of 
200 minutes per week, for arithmetic; 80 minutes per day, or a total of 400 min- 
utes per week, are given to English. Under this designation are assigned Spelling. 
Memory Work, Penmanship, Reading and Grammar, and the course is so arranged 
that instruction is given in each study each day. 

In view of the fact that there are only classes for girls after the fourth year, 
the activities are those that are applicable to girls, and consist of nature study, science, 
music, drawing, sewing, cooking, millinery and commercial work, such as bookkeep- 
ing, typewriting and stenography. 

Under the old system a large number of children were on part time. Under 
the duplicate school system, as operated from September to December, 1916, there 
were no children on part time. Owing to the alterations now being made, it was 
necessary again to resort to part time for pupils up to and including the fourth 
year. However, as already stated,- special instructions are given to part time pupils 
who are backward in their studies. 

I wish to state that I, personally, inspected Public School No. 30, and studied the 
system in actual operation. The children appear to take considerably more interest 
in their work than before. There is absolutely no confusion in the changing of class 
rooms. In fact, the children enjoy this feature, as it makes the day less irksome. 
There is a well organized fire drill, and in every room is a notice as to what action 
is to be taken in case the rapid-dismissal signal is given. There is a duplicate stair 
system which eliminates children passing up and down on the same stairway. 

Personally, I am engaged in the business of accident prevention, and it is de- 
plorable to know of the number of unfortunate children who are killed or maimed each 
year by vehicles. What is the reason? It is because they are not allowed to play at 
home, as either their mother is too busy or their father is sleeping; some one may be 
ill next door, or the neighbor underneath complains of the noise. Therefore, they are 



244 

obliged to go to the street to play. If on the sidewalk, they interfere with pedestrians; 
they prevent people from entering stores, and are therefore ordered away by the 
shopkeepers. The only place left is the roadway, leaving them exposed to the dangers 
of being injured by traffic. The City of New York has assigned certain streets as. 
play streets, but I do not believe that this is sufficient. Space should be secured near 
public schools wherever possible, to be used as playgrounds under proper jurisdiction. 
In our district we are about to take over 8 city lots now in possessi'on of the City for 
unpaid taxes, and which lots are situated directly opposite the school building. With 
. this space and the school yards, also the street which is to be closed to vehicles from 
3 to 6 p. m. on school days, a large playground is available. I might add at this 
point that statistics show over twenty thousand school children to be suffering at the 
present time from heart trouble. 

I must admit that a different problem presents itself for each school, but I be- 
lieve that if proper consideration is given to the matter a solution of each and every 
problem can lie found. 

Objection has been raised to the lack of clothing facilities, which must be admitted 
exist at present ; however, when the alterations are completed there will be provided 
a hook for each scholar's clothing. 

Another objection has been to the lunch period. If a mother has more than one 
child in the school, and they come home to lunch at different times, a transfer will 
be given from the "X" or "Y" schools, as occasion requires, so that all children in one 
family can go to lunch at the same time. It is only necessary for the parent to make 
the request and it will be granted. 

To close, I wish to go on record as stating that I believe that the duplicate school 
system is as near a solution of the educational problem as has been offered up to this 
time; that as it has never been given a thorough trial, owing to the lack of facilities, 
it should be allowed a thorough try-out, under proper conditions, and if found de- 
ficient should be succeeded by some other system to be formulated under the guid- 
ance of the Board of Education. Respectfully submitted, 

(Sgd.) HARRY BEIDE, President, Walton School Parents' Association of P. S. 
No. 30. 

Maryland Casualty Company, New York City, April 3, 1917. 
Hon. Harry Robitzek, 2804 Third Avenue, N. Y. C. : 

Dear Sir — You will probably recall my introduction to you at the Bronx Borough 
Hall, last Thursday evening. 

At that time I took the liberty of suggesting a plan for the hearings which the 
Welfare Committee is holding in the various boroughs on school conditions. I have 
ventured to send this suggestion in written form for your consideration and hazard 
the opinion that greater directness would be given to these hearings if some such 
plan as outlined below is followed and persons appearing before your Committee 
were heard in the following order : 

Members of the Board of Education. 

Members of Local School Boards. 

District Superintendent. 

Principals. 

Teachers. 

The General Public. 

The Chairman to call for any representatives of these division should any of 
them be present. Yours very truly, 

WM. S. M. SILBER, L. S. B. Dist., No. 21. 



245 

The Mothers' Council of Public Schools of the City of New York. 

Member of New York City Federation of Womens' Clubs, Mrs. P. F. Frost, Presi- 
dent, 17 South Bond Street, Mount Vernon, N. Y. 
To President of Mothers' Clubs and Parents' Associations: 

The Mothers' Council of New York Public Schools was formed with the idea 
that we can work with better success together than as individuals, since unity makes 
for strength. 

The council desires for its members the Mothers' Clubs and Parents' Associations 
of the Public Schools of New York City and individual members of the same. 

We wish to promote children's welfare by arousing the interest of mothers in 
pure food, proper housing, and sanitary living conditions. Since libraries, recreation 
centers and playgrounds are requisite for the development of educated minds and 
strong bodies, we heartily favour their establishment and extension in connection 
with Public Schools. 

Meetings are held at 2.30 P. M. on the second Tuesday of each month from 
October to May, at Music Hall, over the main waiting room in Grand Central Ter- 
minal, 42d Street, New York City. Dues are two dollars per annum for each club, 
and one dollar per annum for each individual member of the same. 

The following resolution was presented to the Board of Education over one year 
ago, and to the Committee on General Welfare of Board of Aldermen, at Borough 
Hall, Bronx, March 29, 1917 : 

Resolved, That the Mothers' Council of Public Schools of the City of New York 
record its disapproval of the extension of Gary plan to schools other than those 
for which it has been authorized, until the experiment now under way has demon- 
strated its value and success to the satisfaction of the Board of Superintendents, 
teachers and parents. 

Clubs and parents desiring to endorse this may address the Council Secretary. 

Public notice is hereby given that the Committee on General Welfare of the 
Board of Aldermen will hold public hearings as follows: 

Next Thursday evening, April 5, 8 p. m., in room 14, Supreme Court Chambers, 
Joralemon street, Brooklyn. 

Thursday, April 12, 1917, at Public School No. 6, Steinway and Jamaica avenues, 
L. I., on the following matter : 

No. 1242 — Request of the Conference of Organized Labor to the Board to hold 
hearings and to invite the Board of Education and City officials to answer why the 
demands for better educational facilities have not been respected. 

AU persons interested are invited to attend. 

P. J. SCULLY, City Clerk and Clerk of the Board of Aldermen. 

We earnestly desire your co-operation and support. Respectfully yours, 

MOTHERS' COUNCIL OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF THE CITY OF 
NEW YORK; Mrs. P. F. Frost, President, 17 South Bond Street, Mt. Vernon, New 
York, Tel. 2191 ; Mrs. W. F. Ryerson, Treasurer, 9 Satterlee Avenue, Middle Village, 
New York; Mrs. H. Jacobie, Secretary, 1037 Forest Avenue, Evergreen, L. I., New 
York City. 

MEETING OF THE PARENTS' ASSOCIATION, P. S. 46, MANHATTAN. 

Resolutions and Endorsements by Prominent Pediatricians; Campaign to Lengthen 

the Present Luncheon Period. 

(Copy of letter sent to pediatricians.) 

Dear Dr. The Parents' Association of P. S. 46, West 156th street and St. 

Nicholas Avenue, through its Health and Hygiene Committee, are planning a 
campaign to lengthen the present luncheon period for school children. This organ- 



246 

ization is one of the largest and most influential in the city and intends to have 
this movement taken up by a Federated Parents' Association. Knowing of your 
familiarity and interest in this question, we would like from you as a pediatrician, 
a statement that we may use in this campaign as to the desirability of this change. 
We would appreciate it very much if you would give us your co-operation in 
this way. Thanking you, sincerely yours, 

MAY G. WILSON, M. D., Chairman, Health and Hygiene Committee. 

S. Ansbacher, M. D. ; F. E. Bauer, M. D. ; M. L. Ogan, M. D. ; F. D. Rogers, 
M. D.; F. Welker, M. D. 
The Present Lunch Hour Is a Distinct Menace to the Health of Our School Children. 

Whereas the present lunch hour is supposed to be from 12 to 1 o'clock. It 
being actually one hour minus the time it takes the child to go to and from school, 
which averages f.om ten to twenty minutes, minus ten to fifteen minutes (as the 
children are supposed to be in the building by a quarter to ten minutes to one) 
leaving twenty-five minutes to forty minutes for the time spent in the home. 

And whereas it is considered by medical authority that the big meal of the 
day for children should be at noon and that it is impossible to have proper mastica- 
tion and digestion of food in the allotted time. 

And, whereas, medical authorities agree that the shortness of the present lunch 
hour is a distinct menace to the health of the school child, and that the existing 
conditions are in good measure responsible for the far too numerous cases of mal- 
nutrition. 

And. whereas, at the present time, when the Board of Education is considering 
the Gary plan and other changes of school curriculum, they must be strongly advised 
as to the importance of considering this question. 

And, whereas, in Boston, in various cities in the Middle West, in Switzerland, 
in Italy, in Germany, school authorities have long recognized the importance of 
the midday rest and have one hour and a half to two hours as a luncheon period. 

And, whereas, it is the duty of the Board of Education to safeguard the health 
of the children under its care. 

Therefore be it resolved that this association work to increase the present lunch 
period at least one-half hour (from 12 to 1.30) giving one hour and a half, and 
that in so doing, it be understood that the children should not report at the building 
until 1.30. 

MAY G. WILSON, M. D.. Chairman, Committee on Health and Hygiene, P. S. 
46, Manhattan. 

S. ANSBACHER, M. D.; 1. K. BAUER, M. D. ; M. L. OGAN, M. D.; E. D. 
ROGERS, M. D.; F. WELKER, M. D. 

Charles Gilmore Kerley, M. IX, 132 West 81st Street, New York, April 9, 1917. 
Dr. May G. Wilson : 

My Dear Dr. Wilson— Your letter received. You have by hearty co-operation 
in lengthening the noon lunch hour, and I hope you will be able to lengthen it at 
least one-half hour. Very truly. 

(Signed) CHARLES GILMORE KERLY. 

L. Emmett Holt, 14 West 55th Street, New York, April 11, 1917. 
Dr. May <■- \\ ii s,.x, 460 West 147th Street, New York City : 

Dear Dr. Wilson — I have carefully read the preamble and resolution regarding 
lengthening the mid-day recess for children from one to one and a half hours. 1 
heartily concur in the wisdom of this move. Nothing could be worse for the average 
child than the present scheme for rushing through the principal meal of the day and 
hurrying back to school after it. Yours very truly, 

(Signed) L. EMMETT HOLT. 



247 

Doctor Godfrey R. Pisek, 26 East 64th Street, New York, April 9, 1917. 
Dr. May G. Wilson, 460 West 174th Street, New York City : 

Dear Dr. Wilson — I am convinced that a large number of the ills of our school 
children would be prevented if a longer time was allotted for the lunch period. 
Indigestion, anemia and chorea particularly result from the present regime. 

I trust you may succeed in your efforts to help the school children. 

Very sincerely yours, (Signed) G. H. PISEK. 

My dear Dr. Wilson — I think you have approached a very important problem in 
the school lunch. For the growing child the mid-day meal should be the most im- 
portant one of the day. Plenty of time should be allotted for this meal without 
rushing to get back for the school session. 

I have traced many cases of malnutrition to this cause. I hope you will be 
successful in your efforts to secure sufficient time at the noon hour so that every 
child will have abundant opportunity to eat and digest a nourishing dinner. 

Sincerely yours, (Signed) HENRY DWIGHT CHAPIN. 

51 W. 51st St., April 10, 1917. 

L. E. La Fetra, 113 East 61st Street, New York, April 10, 1917. 
Dr. May G. Wilson, 460 W. 147th Street, New York City: 

Dear Dr. Wilson — I appreciate very much your letter of April 4th asking me 
to address the Parents' Association of Public School 46, Wednesday evening, April 
25th, at 8:30 P. M. on the subject of lengthening the present lunch hour for school 
children. I regret that I am unable to accept your invitation, but would wish to 
emphasize my opinion that a longer luncheon period is highly desirable for most 
school children, particularly if they live more than a five minutes' walk from their 
school. A large number of children suffer from indigestion and consequent mal- 
nutrition, not because of insufficient amount or faulty quality of their foods, but 
because they do not have enough time to masticate it properly and to rest long 
enough for the digestive processes to be inaugurated. This is particularly the case 
with the mid-day meal taken during the recess hour from 12 to 1 o'clock. Because 
of the time necessary to reach their homes and get back to school, and because of 
the anxiety they have not to be late, they are very apt to bolt their food without 
proper chewing and to hurry from the table, often running part of the way back 
to school so as to be there at the time of opening of the afternoon session. The 
nervous influence and the exercise so soon after eating tend to prevent the proper 
digestion of the food, and this results in many children in chronic indigestion 
which can only be overcome by a change of regime. As is well known, most of the 
best private schools hold no afternoon session whatever, and this permits the 
children 'to eat their mid-day meal leisurely and to sit and rest for a time before 
going out for their afternoon' exercise. The lengthening of the mid-day recess 
to two hours is certainly most desirable and would work to great advantage, I am 
sure, for the health of the children concerned. 

Faithfully yours, (Signed) LINNAEUS E. LA FETRA. 

t Joseph E. Winters, M. D., 25 West 37th Street, April 14th, 1917. 
Dr. May G. Wilson, Chairman, Health and Hygiene Committee: 

My Dear Dr. Wilson— I am in thorough accord with the campaign to lengthen 
luncheon hour for school children. Every child should have two hours at noon 
in which to go home and get a hot dinner. A child's principal and most substantial 
meal should be at mid-day. Not only this, but there should be ample time to eat it 
slowly and for return to school without haste. 

I cannot close this without reference to the absurdity and wrongness of com- 
pelling children to go to school half an hour or more before school hour and being 



248 

marched in like a lot of cattle. Neither teachers nor the Board of Education have 
any right to require that a child should be at school before time at lessons. 

Sincerely yours, JOSEPH E. WINTERS. 

Archives of Pediatrics; Editorial office 213 West 70th Street. 
Dr. May G. Wilson, 460 W. 147th Street, New York City. 

My Dear Dr. Wilson — In reply to your letter of April 14, 1917, I would say that 
while I am ignorant of the exact length of time allowed for the luncheon hour of 
P. S. 46, and so cannot judge as to how easily it allows the children on the outskirts 
of the district to eat their luncheons without haste or hurry, I can say that in 
general I am heartily in favor of any attempt to insure time for digestion of school 
children's meals. 

If your campaign will insure absence of haste at the lunch hour, I think it 
should be earnestly applauded. I am very truly yours, R. S. HAYNES. 

. April 13, 1917. 

Dr. Roger Dennett, 125 East 39th Street, New York. 

Dr. Mary G. Wilson, 460 West 147th Street, New York City: 

Mr. Dear Dr. Wilson — I am heartily in sympathy with the Parents' Association 
of P. S. 46, in its plan to lengthen the present luncheon hour for school children. 
Under the present system the time is absolutely inadequate for a child to get home 
and eat his luncheon and return to school as it necessitates hasty eating and often 
inadequate nourishment at the noon meal. 

Rapid eating at all times is incompatible with good health. For children we all 
know the hearty meal should not come at night, but in the middle of the day, and 
if sufficient time is not given for their noon meal, not only is the child apt to be 
undernourished and to acquire indigestion, but the habit of bolting the food may be 
acquired and be detrimental to the individual's health throughout life. 

I wish you every success in your efforts to lengthen the noon hour. 

Yours truly, ROGER H. DENNETT, M. D. 

My Dear Doctor Wilson — Proper nutrition is one of the important factors in the 
physical and mental development of the growing child, Your efforts to secure an 
extension of the lunch hour should have the active support of everyone who realizes 
the fact. 

The present regime is entirely inadequate and should be changed so that the 
children would have at least one hour at table for thorough mastication of the prin- 
cipal meal — which should be the mid-day one. Half an hour should elapse before 
the children are again required in the class room. 

\\ e as physicians have convincing evidence of defects of the present system in 
our daily observation of school children in dispensary as well as private practice. 

It seems that if this very important question were presented to the authorities 
of the Board of Education, it would receive their immediate attention and favorable 
consideration. Yours sincerely, • WILLIAM SHANNON, M. D. 

Trinity Parish, Vicarage of the Chapel of the Intercession, Broadway and 155th 
Street, April 5, 1917. 

To the Committee on Hygiene, Public School Association, New York City: 

Dear Sirs — I desire to go on record as very strongly in favor of the resolutions 
which I have carefully read concerning the present arrangement in the New York 
Public Schools. It seems to me probably most ingeniously devised to do harm. It 
seems to have been planned especially for the benefit of teachers and not at all for 
the welfare of the children. 



249 

While the children in this region probably live, on the whole, nearer the school 
buildings than in any other part of the city, the time necessary in going from school 
to home, getting ready for their luncheon and returning, is in all cases, easily twenty 
minutes. If they are required to be in the building before the hour, this will subtract 
additional time. 

The result is that the children must snatch a hurried meal. In a great many 
instances I find that the mothers simply give the children a small amount of money 
with which they buy from bakeries or delicatessen stores all sorts of food articles, 
no doubt attractive to the childish eye and no doubt most injurious to the childish 
stomach. Amsterdam avenue from twelve to one o'clock is much like a Sunday parade 
on Fifth avenue : filled with little girls and boys, whose countenances are adorned 
with sticks of candy and dill pickles. 

We have a number of industrial schools connected with this church and we have 
to excuse numbers of children from our schools, the usual reason for absence being 
acute indigestion, no doubt caused by the hurried luncheons made necessary by the 
short luncheon period which is now the rule in the New York public school system. 

May I add that I have above fifteen hundred children under my pastoral care. 

Very sincerely yours, (Signed) MILO H. GATES. 

Department of Education, Office of the Principal of Public School No. 169, Bor- 
ough of Manhattan, May 22, 1917. 

Mr. Henry Blumenstock, President, Parents' Association, P. S. 169, 10S Audubon 
Avenue, New York: 
Dear Sir — Your note requesting the facts concerning the crowded conditions in 
this school is received. 

In reply I beg to say that at present there are fourteen classes on the Double 
Session Plan, totaling 576 pupils, from grades 1A through 3A. 

The net increases in the number of new admissions to this school during the 
past four years is as follows : 

Fall of 1913 153 pupils 

Fall of 1914 209 pupils 

Fall of 1915 308 pupils 

♦Fall of 1916 216 pupils 

*Low number of admissions in 1916 is due to the fear on the part of the parents 
of infantile paralysis. 

Trusting that this is satisfactory, and with kind regards, I am Yours truly, 

FRANK A. SCHMIDT, Principal. 
I shall ask the children to notify their parents of the meeting of May 28th. 
(Extract from the Globe referred to above.) 
Military Training Still the Big Question at Kansas City. 

School Superintendents Come to Serious Break, and There Will be No Poll To-day— 
Dr: Finegan's Name to Be Submitted for the Presidency. 

By Tristram W. Metcalfe. 

Kansas Cityj Mo., March 1. — Confronted by the certainty of a serious division 
over the question of military training in the schools, the department of superintendence 
of the National Educational Association will avoid a direct vote to-day. The Com- 
mittee on resolutions, of which State Superintendent Francis C. Blair of Illinois is 
chairman, has decided not to make any recommendations upon the subject to the 
business session. A resolution will be presented declaring the confidence of the 
department of superintendence in and loyalty to President Wilson, in the present 
internal crisis. 



250 

The avoidance of vote will not, however, settle the issue that had already divided 
these in the minor councils of the organization. The committee of military training 
is still wrestling with the proposal to put military training in the schools, and is pre- 
pared to submit an adverse report at the closing session. This will not be voted 
upon however. The minority in the committee has struggled to insert into the report 
a paragraph favoring military training in an emergency, but the majority insists 
that military training in the schools where it has been tried has been a failure. That 
if universal military service is demanded of all young men over nineteen years of age, 
military training in the schools will be unnecessary, and that compulsory physical 
training is all that can be expected of the schools. 

President Aley of the University of Maine, who is president of the National Edu- 
cation Association, put himself on record against military training in the schools 
to-day by declaring it only a half-way measure. Such drills could not be adequate for 
modern warfare. 

At the business session to-day the committee on nominations of which Superin- 
tendent West of Rochester is chairman, will submit the name of Dr. Thomas E. 
Finegan, deputy commissioner of education, New York State, for president of the de- 
partment. Dr. Finegan is now treasurer of the National Education Association. 

Schools Not Making Good. 

The superintendents' convention is only half over, but already the speakers at 
the session now past have told them that the schools are not making good in teaching 
English; that as a rule school buildings are not attractive enough; that bad air is 
fed to the children by out of date ventilation systems; that the co-operation of parents 
is not being enlisted to the fullest extent possible; that the good work done in the 
kindergartens in encountering initiative and self-control is not carried on up into 
the grades; that there is not full utilization of child welfare agencies. 

Various panaceas have been suggested. Americans do not speak English cor- 
rectly, and high school and college students are illiterate so far as English is con- 
cerned. More oral composition was urged as a corrective. Grammar could well be 
eliminated from the elementary schools. Emphasis should be put upon English courses 
in high schools. Every effort should be put forth to eliminate slovenly articulation 
and illiterate speech. To enlist the co-operation of parents teacher associations would 
be organized to demand proper financial support for schools and to insist upon proper 
school conditions for the children. 

For More Attractive Schools. 

The need of attractive and well planned buildings and ample play space was 
urged at last night's session by Superintendent Fred L. Keeler of Michigan, while 
Health Commissioner John Robertson of Chicago made an emphatic plea for proper 
health conditions. He condemned emphatically the overheating and bad ventilation 
so general in school houses, and appealed to the superintendents to insist upon sound 
health training. There was not a hearty reception for his suggestion that military 
training throughout the schools would be the most effective agent. 

Professor F. C. Bagley, of the University of Illinois, sounded an optimistic note, 
claiming credit for the schools for the newer national ideals of patience and forbear- 
and for the new spirit manifested in the recent dignified national campaign. 
Had conditions been otherwise the schools would have been blamed. We appealed 
to the superintendents to insist upon the retention of the old school virtues. There 
wen things more important than routine work and mere knowledge. Thoroughness 
of mastery, doggedness of purpose, and obedience must be emphasized for standards 
rsonal ethics and individual conduct among children will become the standards 
of the adults of the future. 



251 

The importance of fixing educational standards to assure efficiency of procedure 
was presented by Professor C. H. Judd of the University of Chicago. From stand- 
ards in nature, in life, in social relations he developed the importance of determining 
the proper standards in measuring educational progress of pupils. 

School Product Criticized. 
President Robert J. Aley of the National Education Association jolted the advo- 
cates of greater socializing of education by detailing recent comments he had heard 
from business men in Chicago, in Cincinnati, and New York regarding the school 
product. None had complained of lack of social training of the school product, but 
generally they had found * * *. 

739 Kelly Str., Bronx, Mar. 29, 1917. 
Hon. Harry Robitzek, Chairman of the Committee on General Welfare of City of 
New York: 

Dear Sir — I wish to inform you as representative for the members of our 
Mothers' Club of P. S. 39, Bronx, I have been asked to take part at the opening 
hearing held to-night to bring a report before you of conditions in our school and 
school district. 

Our club wishes to inform you that after the careful investigations on the part 
of diligent committees it is necessary to have time allotted a speaker so that sufficient 
cause may be shown why the parents stand ready to reveal conditions which demand 
corrections. 

The two minutes allotted at the March 2d meeting in Aldermanic Chamber we 
deem wasn't sufficient time given to the parents whose interests of the children are 
dearest to their hearts. 

Hoping you will consider our plea, I beg to remain, 

Respectfully yours, Mrs. J. J. WOLF. 

739 Kelly Street, Bronx, March 29, 1917. 
Hon. Frank Dowling, President of the Board of Aldermen, City Hall, New York 
City: 

Dear Sir — Enclosed I wish to submit a report of conditions in our school, No. 
39, Bronx, as President of Mothers' Club of that school, as also the conditions as 
they exist in our school district, tabulating and enumerating conditions which demand 
correction and investigation. 

We hope that the members of the Board of Aldermen who are on the Committee 
on General Welfare of the Board of Aldermen will listen to the plea of parents of 
our school children whose welfare we parents have at heart. 

Thanking you for this splendid opportunity, we beg to remain members of the 
Mothers' Club of P. S. 39,* Bronx. 

Respectfully submitted by the President of the Mothers Club, 

Mrs. J. J. WOLF. 
Hon. Harry Robitzek, Chairman of the General Welfare of the Board of Aldermen: 

Dear Sir-^For the past seven or eight years our Mothers' Club has had the 
record of endeavoring to secure the establishment of proper school facilities for the 
proper education of our school children both from the Board of Education and the 
City officials. 

During the time that the congestion was so great in our neighborhood it was 
necessary for us to hold a mass meeting in 1911 to show cause to the Hon. late 
Mayor Gaynor, Dr. Maxwell, the Board of Est.mate why additions should be built 
and why there was need of new schoolhouses to be built to meet the increased popu- 



252 

lation. which had increased the school population, and it was then that our club 
recommended the buying of school sites and the erection of new school buildings. 

Since then our addition to 39 has been built, the new school at P. S. 52 and 
P. S. 48, besides we received relief by hired annexes and portable buildings. 

Some of the portable buildings which have housed our children were a disgrace 
to the City of New York. 

Liberal support of education is the foundation on which the City builds. 

H. M. citizens pay the taxes which yield the millions into the City's treasury 
appropriated yearly for the schools are qualified by knowledge of the facts whether 
the money is wisely expended or not? 

For years the school system has been the subject of contention a demand for 
adequate housing accommodations with a seat for every child has been voiced re- 
peatedly, and we have advocated then as we do now to the various city authorities 
that votes for women seems to be the only means of the proper solution of our 
school problems for who is it that has the welfare of the children at heart but the 
teacher and mother. 

Our club has been represented at the open hearing of the Board of Education, 
the hearing before the Board of Aldermen Mar. 2nd but has not taken the initiative 
until tonight as we were opposed to having had 2 min. allotted time given to such an 
important subject the interest of our children and their welfare. 

Before I proceed I wish to state that through the various organizations of the 
with whom our club has affiliated, the organized labor and mothers and par- 
ents' association we demand these open hearings as we understood it for parents and 
teachers and principals to give their views as to conditions which exist which demand 
ti.in and to determine whether conditions in the public schools are such as to 
warrant a thorough investigation by the members of the general welfare committee 
of the Board of Aldermen. 

Therefore our club wishes to put on record as strictly opposed to any speaker 
paid by party, personal or foundations to take part at the hearings until the parents 
who have asked for these meetings shall be heard. 

Why do we need Rockefeller foundations to the government of our City to 
shape the education of the youth of this country? 

Why do we need society women who have no children in our public schools (in- 
cluding the Committee of 100 who appointed themselves a committee at the open 
hearing of the Board of Education) or agencies as the woman principal league, etc., 
to foster the Gary plan or double session plan or Wirt plan or whatever name you 
may give it. 

Why <lo we need the advice of these ladies to tell us that they will work on 
this committee to create public opinion without due regard to the parents of our 
school children? We parents who many of us are graduates of our City schools 
and high schools and colleges and former teachers and nave had the opportunity of 
Studying school conditions, having had our own children graduated from our present 
schools and high schools. 

Therefore are we not qualified to know what education in the fundamental sub- 
jects is essential to a good education, reading, writing and spelling, arithmetic and 
grammar? 

Therefore why does the curriculum of the secondary schools which have been so 
successful in the past need to be changed? 

Why do we need the extensions of the Gary system when it is still in the ex- 
perimental stage and has not proved its success but instead there have been many 
defects pointed out? 

As you all know. P. S. 45 is a model school and has received generous considera- 
tion from the Board of Education as also the Board of Estimate in the matter of 
equipment and installation of the Gary plan. 



253 

But how about the other schools in the experimental stage, 12 in the Bronx, 
who have been entirely ignored regarding accommodations for lockers, lavatories, 
playgrounds, swimming pools, gymnasiums, baseball and basketball grounds, equip- 
ment in the shop and printing department. 

There is congestion in our schools, there is not a seat for every child, ample 
safety of children in case of fire has not been taken into consideration, there is room 
for the health authorities to improve conditions, there is part time that should be 
remedied, double session to be eliminated where it is not .found to be the best for 
the child taking the interests of the child into consideration rather than the cutting 
of expenditures or in other words economy. 

We see no need of the drawing of sectarian lines in our schools as it has been 
the cause of dissention in many of our schools where the Gary plan has not been 
introduced. 

Do not the public schools represent a huge investment of public funds from 
which the community rightfully demands large returns in loyal and efficient citizen- 
ship? 

What New York City needs is a revival of public unwillingness to have schools 
influenced by any outside agencies whether they be party, personal or foundation 
policies. 

Therefore be it resolved that our club stands opposed to the existing conditions 
found in our public schools. 

We protest against the influences of outside agencies in our schools. 

We protest against the forcing of the double session school plan for which 
many of our schools are not adequately equipped. 

We protest against the drawing of sectarian lines in our schools and stand op- 
posed to have the religion brought into the schools. 

We protest against the influence of politics. 

We protest against the inadequate school facilities in' our schools and high 
schools. 

We stand for more new school buildings and more high schools and better 
facilities. 

But we stand opposed to the Gary plan about to be introduced into P. S. No. 39 
until the other 12 schools have tried the plan sufficiently to prove the success of it. 

Recommending to your Committee the above report, I beg to remain, 

Respectfully yours, Mrs. J. J. WOLF. 

739 Kelly Street, March 30, 1917. 
Hon. Harry Robitzek : 

Dear Sir — It would please me very much if I could get a copy of Mrs. Donlan's 
report, submitted at the meeting yesterday to your committee. 

She is a teacher in 39 and was speaker following me, answering charges to my 
interest, while unfortunately a member of Local School Board interrupted my atten- 
tion so that I was unable to note what was said to the parents, for just now there 
is a suit against a member for $50,000, and Mrs. Donlon said might have been of 
benefit to member to answer charges on April 17. 

If it is not inconveniencing you or your secretary I would be obliged for the above 
information. 

Thanking you, I am, Respectfully yours, Mrs. J. J. WOLF. 

The local school board man was of our district. Can't account why he did it. 
To distract my attention. 

739 Kelly Street, Bronx, March 30th, 1917. 

Hon. Harry Robitzek, Chairman of the General Welfare Committee of the Board of 
Aldermen, N. Y. City: 

Honorable Sir — Enclosed please find a copy of a clipping of an article to appear 
in Sinai's Echo on Friday, March 30th, 1917. 



254 

This article refers to my address before your honorable board last night at the 
Borough Hall, pointing to the fact that the parents of P. S. 39 are opposed to sectarian 
lines being drawn in our school. 

Although I was able to give this report last night I deemed this a local affair of 
conditions at the school for which I have called a mass meeting in April on the 
17th, at which meeting the parents, the children, the district superintendent, the prin- 
cipal and teachers and the members of Board of Education, as also the members of 
your honorable board who are interested in local affairs will be invited. 

However, I shall try to send you a copy of the grievances brought out at this 
meeting. 

I would like to call your attention to the fact that the incident has been the cause 
of a lecture, which lecture I received an announcement of in this morning's mail. 
Subject, "Higher Anti-Semitism," at 8.15 p. m. at Sinai Temple of the Bronx, 951 
Stebbins Avenue, at East 163d Street, by Rev. Dr. Max Reichler. 

With the enclosed report I am also sending a statistical report of school 39, as 
also the number of children in our school. 

Thanking you for the splendid opportunity that your Welfare Committee offers 
the parents of our school children. Article to appear in "Sinais Echo" on Friday, 
March 30th, 1917. 

? is the matter with P. S. 39. 

Various reports have reached us about the stifling and suffocating atmosphere 
prevailing at P. S. 39. The principal of that school is reported to have said last 
May to one of the mothers, Mrs. H. : "You Jews have had it too long your own way 
in the Bronx; I will show you what I can do." Many uncomplimentary remarks are 
said to have been made publicly about the parents of the children attending that 
school. On Jan. 31st, 1917, Miss B., head of one of the departments, spoke in a con- 
temptous manner of a Rabbi leading one of the largest congregations in the Bronx, 
and used on that occasion the "refined ? word sheeny," and this in the presence of 
the Jewish teacher. There seems to have been inaugurated a subtle method of 
harassing and nagging the Jewish teachers, which is the more sinister on account of 
being ingenious, it is indeed deplorable that such conditions should exist in a pub- 
lic school in which the majority of the children are Jewish. 

re are 52 rooms in use; sittings, 2,363; kindergarten sittings, 90; auditorium, 
652; legal capacity, 2,019. 

Sittings for 2,363 

Legal 2,019 



344 
Therefore there are no seats for 344 children legally. 

\\ e have also an indoor playground, which was provided for when the addition 
was built, although we have found it unsanitary for our children to play in on damp 
days, as the moisture from the ground is so great that one think that it had rained 
indoors. 

And therefore this is one of the reasons our Club wishes to be put on record 
as against the rebuilding and rcaltering of schools which has to go on when a school 
is reorganized to be Garyized, especially when the children must occupy the building 
while the school is under construction as it was in P. S. 30, Miss Conlon's school 
where the children were forced to occupy the building while the auditorium was under- 
going construction. 

Therefore we stand on record as the only solution to the problem is to build 
more school houses to house the children, taking into consideration their health and 
their welfare. 



255 

Hoping you will add the enclosed reports to those I submitted last night at the 
Board of Aldermen meeting. 

Thanking you for this privilege, I beg to remain, 

Respectfully yours, Mrs. J. J. WOLF. 

Bureau of attendance record taken by the Principal of the school and submitted 
to the Attendance Bureau in Feb., 1917. 

P. S. 39, District 24, Feb., 1917. 

Register at the date. 

Whole time, including 5 hours or more. 

Double session— 443 boys, 452 girls; total, 895; women teachers, 21; classes, 21. 

Regular session — 201 boys, 1,243 girls; total, 1,444; women teachers, 34; classes, 34. 

Whole time, first year — Double session, 242 boys, 240 girls ; total, 432 ; women 
teachers, 11; classes, 11. 

Kindergarten classes — 107 boys, 93 girls ; total, 200 ; women teachers, 4 ; classes, 4. 

Total register of classes up to date — 993 boys, 2,028 girls ; total, 3,021 ; women 
teachers, 70; classes, 70. 

The report above will show you the register of the children with no part time, 
so that we see no reason why the Gary system is about to be installed when we do 
not need it. 

The only mistake at P. S. 39, or might I call it illegal or unrectified condition 
in our school, is that we have not a seat for every child. 

March 17, 1917; Mrs. F. Mayer, 1859 Morris Ave., Bronx. 
Mr. Robitzek; 

Dear Sir — As the mother of eight children, all of them pupils at some time during 
the past twelve years of P. S. 28, and having always taken an interest in their educa- 
tion I would like to express my opinion on the school system at your meeting. 

Truly, MRS. F. MAYER. 

New York, March 27, 1917. 
Mr. Harry Robitzek, 2808 Third Avenue, New York City : 

Dear Sir — Enclosed find copy of Dr. Joseph S. Taylor's report on Gary schools 
in Bronx. Also list of executive officers of Gary League for 1917. 

The new letter heads are not ready, so I am using last year's stationery. 
Yours respectfully, 

MARIE L. ARTHUR (Mrs. Harry C), 690 Union Ave., Bronx. 

The Gary School League. 
Officers 'of the League, 1917: Chairman, Mrs. Seth Milliken; Vice-Chairmen, 
Mrs. Richard Aldrich, Mrs. Walston Hill Brown, Mrs. Henry Bruere, Mrs. J. Mowbay 
Clarke, Mrs. F. Robertson Jones, Mrs. Ogden Mills Reid, Mrs. Claire Raphael Reis, 
Mrs. James Harvey Robinson and Mrs. Ralph Rounds ; Recording Secretary, Mrs. 
E. M. Foote; Treasurer, Mr. Theodore Hetzler; Assistant Treasurer, Mrs. Percy 
Jackson ; Finance Committee, Mrs. Wendell T. Bush, Mr. Theodore Hetzler, Mrs. L. 
Emmett Holt, Mrs. Percy Jackson, Mr. Howard W. Nudd, and Mr. Edgerton Parsons; 
Chairman of Visiting Committee, Mrs. George W. Bacon ; Chairman of Meetings 
Committee, Miss Mary Moore Orr ; Chairman of News and Literature Committee, 
Miss Agnes de Lima; Chairman of Committee on Co-operation, Miss Eleanor John- 
son. 

In the Bronx. 

(The Work-Study-Play Plan) 
In March, 1915, there were 36,000 children in 12 schools in Districts 25 and 26, 
Bronx, and 25,000 school seats. That means there were 20,000 children on part time. 



256 

In July, 1915, the work of reconstruction began. 

By January, 1917, eleven schools in the Bronx were operating on the new plan. 

Results of the Plan in The Bronx. 

All the children in these schools have been taken off part time. 

All children in these schools above the 4th grade have a 6 hour school day; 
below the 4th grade a five hour school day. 

Every child in these schools has a regular school seat in which to study the 3 Rs 
for the same amount of time as in regular schools. 

In addition, there is a total increase of shops, studies, and laboratories from 40 
to 125, or 212 per cent. 

135 per cent, more children received instruction in the following subjects after 
than before reorganization : 



Subjects. Before 

Auditorium 

Nature Study 

Play 

Science 

Domestic Science 

Library 

Manual Training 

Commercial 

Printing 

Millinery 

Dress Making 

Woi "1 Making 

Sheet Metal 

Trade Drawing 

Carpener Shop 

Steam and Gas Fitting 

Machine Shop 

Pottery 

Bookbinding 

Spanish 

German 

French 

Cabinet Shop 

Farming 

Biology 

Pattern Making 

Metal Work 

Home Making 



After. 



5.000 


25,000 


25,000 


30,000 


15,000 


28,000 


2,500 


8.400 


2,400 


5,100 


None 


9,500 


2,200 


3,000 


None 


3,300 


None 


500 


None 


1,000 


None 


800 


None 


800 


None 


900 


None 


1,500 


None 


1,550 


None 


300 


None 


160 


None 


200 


None 


800 


None 


1,400 


soo 


1,350 


None 


100 


200 


800 


. None 


200 


None 


600 


None 


500 


None 


500 


None 


200 


53,100 


124,910 



The Duplicate School as an Educational Asset, Being an Account of the Introduc- 
tion of the Gary School Organization in New York City, by Joseph S. Taylor, 
District Superintendent of Schools. 
(Paper read before the Department of Superintendence, N. E. A., at Kansas City, 
Mo., March 1, 1917.) 
1. Theory of the Duplicate School. One of the most pregnant conceptions of 
modern philosophy is Herbert Spencer's definition of life as a continuous adjust- 



257 

ment. The school is a social institution. It lives by continuous adjustment. The 
life of a people determines its educational ideals. As the mode or standard of life 
changes, the school must also change. The school of any age is an expression of the 
dominent ideals of the time. This explains the constant unrest in the educational world. 
Discussions, agitations, reforms, revolutions, are all evidences of adjustment. 

"Nothing is secure," says Emeron, "but life," transition, the energizing spirit. 
People wish to be settled ; only as far as they are unsettled is there any hope for 
them. The cemetery is the only place for rest, and peace, and permanence. The 
criticism of the existing order and the clamor for change are to be looked upon 
not as evils, but as symptoms of life, and health, and progress. 

The Gary School, the duplicate school, the "modern school," the "schools of 
to-morrow" are all evidences of the great law of adjustment by which life is main- 
tained. 

1. Changed Social and Economic Conditions — The common school was origi- 
nally adapted to a relatively simple social organization, when industries were 
diffused in many small units and hand labor was the rule. The children's partici- 
pation in industrial processes was then quite as much a part of their education as 
the lessons in school. It occupied far more hours of their time than school work. 
It was part of the process of adjustment to their environments. The adjustment 
has been disarranged because, while the school remains essentially what it was in 
the simple days of old, the environment is totally different. The duplicate school 
is an attempt to adjust the child to the kind of society we have at present. 

2. Historical Retrospect — A review of the writings of modern educational 
reformers from Rosseau to date, will show that the following ideas have received 
emphasis from one or more of the authors : 

(1) Physical education and play; (2) manual training; (3) sense-education; 
(4) nature study; (5) motivation, or interest; (6) drawing as a mode of expression; 
(7) utilitarian principle of study; (8) the art of action, or learning by doing, or 
learning by living; (9) self-activity, or initiative; (10) freedom of discipline, or 
self-government; (11) education as development; (12) impression and expression; 
(13) intellectual liberty of the child; (14) creative activity as the essence of edu- 
cation. 

The duplicate school at its best embodies all these ideas. 

3. Learning as a Necessity — Not only must we constantly readjust the school 
Co meet social and economic changes, but we must change our point of view as to 
the method of education in accordance with new insight gained through progress in 
psychology. The theories of interest and effort are alike in one respect. They both 
assume that learning is a naturally hateful thing to a child ; and therefore one 
undertakes to cajole the child by endowing knowledge with an artificial interest, 
while the .other keeps him at his tasks by threatening hand of authority. The truth 
of the matter is that learning is- as necessary to the mind of a child as food is 
to his body. From the moment of the first awakening of the infant intellect there 
is a ceaseless exploration of the. universe in quest of knowledge. The life of the 
child is wholly engrossed in play, and play is Nature's school. Rosseau was the first 
educator to see clearly that learning in the form of play is a part of the process 
of self-preservation and growth. Hence, as Prof. Dewey has said, .if we want 
to find out how education takes place most successfully we shall have to study -the 
experiences of children while learning is a necessity that is outside of school. 

4. A Child's World — Many wealthy parents send their children to country 
schools for city boys, where the children are busy at work, study, or play from 
9 to S ; but as Mr. Wirt says : "Taking children away from the city to secure the 
desired environment, is running away from the problem. We need to create a 
child world within the adult world of the city that will give children the right en- 
vironment in the city itself. Fortunately the facilities necessary for creating such 



258 

a child world can only be used by adults. Thus solving the problem in the city 
itself we not only create a suitable environment for the rearing of children, but 
this same environment of swimming pools, playgrounds, gymnasiums, libraries, 
auditoriums, shops and laboratories is available for ue by these children as well as 
adults after they have been successfully reared. By creating a suitable environ- 
ment outside of the city, if it were possible to do so for all children, we would have 
the environment for the children only while they are in school. When they must 
quit school, no satisfactory environment would exist within the city, where the 
children must live, for living the type of life for which they have been trained.' 

5. Summary. Summarizing the theories of Dewey, Sneddem, Wirt and other 
reformers of the day, we find the following demands, every one of which is supplied 
by the duplicate school: 

( 1 ) A course of study which provides for the education of the body as well as 
of the mind, both for the development of bodily health and strength and to provide 
for an appreciative background for abstract studies through muscular activity. 

(_') A form of school organization more flexible than the present, the purpose 
for adapting the school to local communities, to the various social groups — industrial, 
professional, artistic — and to the children of varying abilities and tastes. 

(3) A recognition of the value and dignity of manual labor as an element of 
i.;il efficiencj and good citizenship. (See Taylor's "A Handbook of Vocational 

Education," pp. 5-10.) 

(4) Tin' elements of vocational education for all children, at a cost within the 
means of the taxpayers. 

(5) An enlarged conception of the educational value of play under the supervision 
of competent teachers, instead of the unsupervised play of the street and alley. 

(6) The socialization of the teacher and the child; that is, giving each the view 
that the school is for the production of good citizens, and that action rather than 
knowledge is the ultimate aim of education. 

(7) Preparation of children to discharge their duties of citizenship in a de- 
mocracy. This means the democratic ideal in school discipline, and the largest possible 
development of initiative, self-direction and the assumption of responsibility. 

(8) The teaching of science in laboratories by the heuristic method. 

(9) The teaching of music and drawing in studies by specialists. 

(10) Co-operation of the school with other child-welfare agencies to promote 
efficiency and economy of effort. 

(llj A complete and continuous use of the school plant, so as to justify the 
•enormous investment of capital by ample dividends in the form of social uplift. 

2. Origin of the New York Experiment. In June, 1914, a party of New Yorkers, 
consisting of Mayor Mitchel, Chamberlain Bruere, the President of the Board 
of Education, and several other persons visited Chicago, Cincinnati and Gary for the 
purpose of. studying various types of vocational education. As a result of that visit 
Dean Schneider of the University of Cincinnati and Superintendent Wirt of Gary 
invited to come to New York, at an annual salary of ten thousand dollars each, 
for the purpose of conducting educational experiments. 

Dean Schneider was to install his well-known co-operative part-time scheme in 
connection with certain of our high schools, and Mr. Wirt was to orgajiize six schools 
in accordance with his work-study-and-play programme. The Board of Estimate 
promptly provided the money ($150,000) with which to finance the experiments. By 
October, 1914, five prevocational schools were ready for work. Mr. Wirt, who up to 
this time had not been actually employed or consulted, informed the City authorities 
that these schools differed fundamentally from the type developed by himself, and 
that he could not use them to make his experiment. They have, therefore, ever since 
been known as "prevocational schools." (See a Report on the Organization and Ex- 



259 

tension of Prevocational Training in Elementary Schools, by Dr. Wm. L. Ettinger, 
New York Board of Education, 1916.) In the Budget adopted for the year 1915, the 
further sum of $236,500 was set aside for experimental work in vocational training. 

In November, 1914, Mr. Wirt reorganized Public School 89, Brooklyn, and the 
following March the Board of Education approved the organization and requested the 
issue of corporate stock to the amount of $50,000 to build an addition to the school 
in accordance with Mr. Wirt's recommendation. 

On or about February 1, 1915, Mr. Wirt reorganized Public School 45, Bronx, 
which is in my district. During the same month Mr. Angelo Patri, the Principal of 
this school; Mrs. Alice B. Ritter, the Principal of Public School 89, Brooklyn, and 
myself were sent by the Board of Education to Gary, Indiana, for the purpose of 
studying the schools. I spent four days in this investigation, accompanied by Mr. 
Wirt, who explained every detail of the organization in relation to the aim of the 
whole. (A report of my observations was published in Educational Review for May, 
1915.) 

Some time in March I submitted to Mr. Wirt the details of the remarkable 
congestion in twelve schools situated within a radius of half a mile from my office. 
There were 36,000 children in these schools to be accommodated in 25,000 seats ; and 
thus 20,000 children were forced on part time. Mr. Wirt at once made a survey of 
the twelve buildings, and in April made a report to the Board of Education explaining 
what he could do to relieve congestion by organizing duplicate schools. He estimated 
that^ for about seven hundred fifty thousand dollars he could abolish all part time, 
enrich the course of study, supply prevocational training, and provide seats for ten 
thousand additional children. In due time this report was referred to me for an 
opinion as to the necessity and desirability of the proposed changes, I promptly 
approved the plan, and on June 23, 1915, the Board of Education requested funds to 
carry out Mr. Wirt's recommendations. By July 1, the Board of Estimate had 
appropriated the funds, and the work of reconstruction' began. 

3. Extent of Experiments. The funds already available for new construction, 
alteration and equipment amount to seven million dollars. A report now pending 
before the Board of Education calls for about six million more, which the Board of 
Estimate stands ready to appropriate. The City therefore is practically committed 
to an investment of thirteen million dollars for the purpose of financing the 
duplicate school. The total number of schools involved in present plans is 78; the 
total number of children is 185,000. The City is also committed through its Mayor, 
Board of Estimate and Board of Education to the duplicate school as a definite 
policy for future school construction and organization. 

In providing school accommodations heretofore localities were considered as isolated 
cases. When the time came to prepare a building programme for a contemplated 
appropriation, there might be a demand for a score of new buildings. Each of these 
propositions was supported by local school boards, associations of taxpayers, and 
prominent individuals, without reference to neighboring conditions or the needs of the 
City as a whole. Usually the people who made the most noise got the money. 

Since Mr. Wirt came to town the district is the unit of school construction. (The 
City is divided into 46 supervisory districts, each of which has a local school board, 
and each pair di which has a district superintendent.) This change has revealed 
some remarkable anomalies. There is one district, for example, that demanded a 
new school, but a survey of the entire district showed that by the use of the duplicate 
plan four old buildings no longer fit for use might be abandoned and sold, while 
all the children could be comfortably housed in the remaining buildings. It is needless 
to say that the new school will not be built. 

4. The Bronx Experiment. The balance of this discussion will be devoted ex- 
clusively to the duplicate schools in the 25th and 26th districts in The Bronx, of which 



260 

I have supervision. The schools whose reorganization is already authorized are 
fourteen in number, with a registration of 40,000; but only eleven are at present 
operating under the duplicate plan. The register of these is 30,000. 

While the reorganization of my first school was in progress, a public meeting 
was called at the Bronx House to start an agitation for the establishment of two 
vocational schools in the Bronx, one for boys and one for girls. Various speakers 
presented arguments in favor of such schools, calling attention to the fact that 
The Bronx was the only borough without this type of education. At last Mr. Wirt's 
turn came. He said nothing about vocation training as such and not a word about 
our proposed trade schools. He merely described a Gary school. When he had 
finished, the audience unanimously agreed that the cheapest and best way to secure 
elementary vocation training for Bronx children would be to introduce the Gary 
system. If the Board of Education spent a million dollars to build two trade schools, 
some fifteen hundred children would secure training in a few selected industries. 
The rest of the hundred thousand children would receive no benefit whatever. By 
the reorganization of fourteen schools in my district, forty thousand children would 
be affected. 

The following table of special activities shows to what extent the enrichment 
of the course of study has already been accomplished in the eleven schools now 
operating under the duplicate program. 

In terms of physical equipment, this means that we have: 

(1) Forty-one special activities, including 3i industrial shops and 8 libraries, 
that we never before had in any school. 

(2 i An increase of drawing and music studios from 11 to 22. 
\n increase of sewing rooms from 1 to 11. 

(4) An increase of nature study laboratories from nothing to 11. 

( 5 I An increase of domestic science rooms from 7 to 9. 

(ii) An increase of gymnasiums from 6 to 11. 

An increase of manual training shops from 7 to 8. 

(SI An increase of science laboratories from 6 to 11. 

\ total increase of shops, studios and laboratories from 40 to 125, or 212 
per cent. 

ireen the sexes the new activities are distributed as follows: 21 are for boys 
only, 27 are for j^irU only, 77 are for both boys and girls. 

In terms of pupil activities the increase of facilities is shown in the following 
tabli 

7'u/>/,- 2 — Showing the Number of Children Receiving Instruction Before and After 

Reorganization. 

Subjects. Before. After. 

Auditorium 5,000 25,000 

Nature Study 25,000 30,000 

Flay 15,000 28,000 

Science 2,500 8,400 

Domestic Science 2,400 5,100 

Library 9,500 

Manual Training 2,200 3,000 

Commercial 3,300 

Printing 500 

Millinery 1,000 

Dressmaking 800 



261 



Subjects. Before. After. 



Woodworking 800 

Sheet Metal 900 

Trade Drawing 1,500 

Carpenter Shop ISO 

Steam and Gas Fitting 500 

Machine Shop 160 

Pottery 200 

Bookbinding '. 800 

Spanish 1,400 

German 800 1,250 

French 100 

Cabinet Shop 200 800 

Farming 200 

Biology 600 

Pattern Making 500 

Metal Work 500 

Homemaking 200 



Total 53,100 124,910 

Per cent, increase, 135. 

Classifying the special activities into industrial and miscellaneous, we see by the 
following tables in still another form what the duplicate school has done for Bronx 
children : 

Tabic 3. Showing the Number of Children Receiving Industrial Experience Who 
Had No Such Opportunity Before Reorganization. 

Industries for girls only 4,700 

Industries for boys only 6,410 

Industries for both B. and B 4,800 

Total 15,910 

Table 4. Showing Miscellaneous Subjects in Which Children Receive Instruction Not 
Given to Them Before Reorganization. 

Library work 9,500 

Foreign languages 1,950 

Science 11,500 

Auditorium 20,000 

Total 42,950 

Here is a complete demonstration of the wisdom of the Bronx House meeting 
in dropping the / agitation for trade schools (which will come later) and supporting 
the duplicate school. A million dollars invested in trade schools would have given 
industrial experience to fifteen hundred children, but seven hundred fifty thou- 
sand invested in duplicate schools is already giving such experience to sixteen thou- 
sand children. And in addition to this, it is giving library training to ninety-five 
hundred, foreign languages to nineteen hundred, science teaching in laboratories to 
eleven thousand five hundred, and auditorium exercises to twenty thousand. And 
three schools, included in the original appropriation, with a register of more than 



262 

ten thousand, each with a swimming pool, gymnasium, auditorium and a number of 
industrial shops have still to be reorganized. 

As a fitting conclusion to this brief record of accomplishment, I venture to 
quote an editorial from the New York Globe, printed in June, 1915, the day after 
the Board of Education had authorized the Bronx experiment: 

"By unanimously voting ... to apply the Gary system to twelve schools 
in The Bronx, the Board of Education has launched the biggest experiment in 
popular education since the experiment of popular education was launched. 
What is proposed is epochal and points in the direction of a complete revo- 
lution in common school education. 

"Thoughtful educators have long recognized that a fundamental change in 
the common school system is needed. Existing methods are out of joint with 
the times. Formerly, when literacy opened doors to opportunity, the boy or girl 
of common school education had an advantage. Common school education 
was vocational, as well as cultural. But, with universal education a new condition 
was created. The diffusion of education lessened, almost squeezed into noth- 
ing, the utilitarian elements. The problem is not to get the cultural element 
out of the common schools, but to get the utilitarian element back into them. 
"In essence this is what the Gary system has in view. It does not mini- 
mize the importance of the old curriculum, but adds to it. It is the present 
school plus something more. It seeks to bring the public school up to date, 
to recognize the fact that literacy is no longer enough, that training must go 
further. 

"In the making of the experiment, doubtless many mistakes will be made. 
1 1 administration will be with teachers set in their views. Many of them will 
fight it. it will run counter to the prejudices of many parents. Thus it will 
have a hard time. 

"But the idea is a big one — bigger than is now realized. It seems sound. 
It has the support of the members of the teaching corps least affected with 
hardening of the mental arteries. It appeals to the sympathies of all who have 
social imagination. As such it is entitled to something more than a fair chance 
and the public should be prepared to disregard a large part of the opposition 
that will necessarily arise — an opposition bottomed on narrowness and a hostility 
to the unfamiliar." 

Real Estate Forum Publishing Co., Inc., 41 Park Row, New York, March 29, 1917. 
To the Hon. Aldermanic Committee Investigating Public Schools, New York: 

(n'litlemen — Let tin lake this opportunity to assure you as chairman of the Edu- 
cation Committee of the Bronx Chamber of Commerce as well as chairman of simi- 
lar committees in other civic borough organizations and managing editor of the "Real 
Estate Forum" ol mj heartiest support in the school investigation your Honorable 
has started. While 1 realize that the hands of your Honorable body are tied 
and that all von can do is to recommend a State investigation of the public school 
- in on the strength of the data you may gather, I feel very keen about such an 
tigation and am sure that you have taken up a worthy investigation which will 
mean not only a change but an absolute reorganization and readjustment of our 
public school affairs. 

School conditions as they exist to-day must be looked upon from two different 
angles; first, as parents looking out for the very best education of their children; 
ind, as taxpayers trying to get a public school administration on a basis of efficiency 
and economy. 

Taking first of all the view point of the parents, I may say that the present edu- 
cation is far from being satisfactory. I have undeniable proof to the effect that big 
business concerns have for years employed graduates of public schools in their houses 



:> .> 

as errand boys and that none of these graduates was able to read and write correctly. 
The three "R's," once and righteously leading in the education of our children, have 
been infringed upon or partly substituted by a Mayor-dominated, dictated and con- 
trolled Garyized system of education, which is strongly resented by the majority of 
mothers of school children. 

I am extremely pleased to state here that the Bronx Chamber of Commerce was 
the only Bronx civic body so far going on record as strongly opposed to the Gary 
methods of education. I feel that the Chamber in adopting this resolution has voiced 
the sentiment of the majority of the people of the Bronx. 

One of the most serious defects of our present school system is the question of 
rating the pupils. The rating is left in the hands of the teachers, who in turn are 
rated by the principals of our public schools. The principal rates a teacher according 
to the number of promoted children. The teacher in consequence is interested in pro- 
moting as many if not all the children in the class regardless of their actual progress 
and knowledge. 

There are schools in the City where children are used continually to substitute 
teachers who are absent or who make a habit of coming to school later than scheduled. 

Congestion in public schools, such as exists especially in Brooklyn and the Bronx, 
big schools with classes of 50 or 60 children, are another danger in our present school 
system. Authorities on education have repeatedly pointed out the dangers of big 
classes. And yet our authorities in the school system see fit to enlarge existing classes. 

Our educational authorities should be kept to refrain from any other but edu- 
cational activity in public schools. It has come to my attention that a principal of a 
Bronx pubiic school has forced the children to bring back the Mayor's loyalty pledge 
signed by their parents under threat of losing 5 per cent, in his or her rating. 

In a time of extreme tensity, when our beloved Republic is on the brink of war, 
we should insist that our schools should not be used for any measure or measures 
which might bring about an estrangement between parents and children or incite 
a national fight within a nation. Loyalty enforced by blackmail systems is not the 
loyalty we want. We want true, devoted loyalty, a loyalty such as was demonstrated 
b great Americans of foreign birth, such as Franz £ igcl, Carl Schurz. Hercheimer 
and others, a loyalty which does not demonstrate itself in signing a paper issued by 
the Mayor of this City. 

Such measures adopted by our school authorities should he resented by your 
Honorable body as true representatives of the people of this City. 

There is a great deal of extravagance and waste in the administration of our 
public schools. The City of New York is at present paying nearly $43,000,000 for the 
administration of its public school system, or one-fifth of the entire City budget. This 
is much more than any other city in the Union is paying at present. I have before 
me the records of the public school budgets in Chicago, Boston, Baltimore, Philadel- 
phia and San Francisco. All these cities pay much less than New York. The adop- 
tion of the Chicago system in this city would save us about $9,000,000 annually; the 
adoption of the Boston system, which includes gymnastic (military) training, teachers' 
pensions, pensions to janitors and attendance officers and so forth, would save the 
city about $2,000,000 annually, not to speak of the additional expenses we would have 
to bear should/the Lockwood-Ellenbogen bill be passed. The adoption of the Balti- 
more plan of education would save the City of New York over S20.000.000 annually. 
I am willing to submit exact calculations at any time your Honorable body may see 
fit to call upon me. 

It seems to me that the Boston system is the best adapted and most efficient 
of all the systems, I so far had an opportunity to study. The School Committee of 
Boston is authorized by law to appropriate the following sums: (a) $4.35 upon 
each one thousand dollars of the valuation of the City for the public schools and 
their support, of which amount not more than 60 cents upon every one thousand 



264 

dollars shall be appropriated solely for new school buildings, lands, yards and fur- 
nishings, no more than 35 cents upon every such one thousand dollars shall be! 
appropriated for salaries of teachers. The City of Boston furthermore provides 7 
cents of every one thousand dollars for teachers' pensions and so forth. 

The school budget of Boston, which is per capita lower than New York City's 
school budget, includes extended use of public schools, physical education, teachers, 
janitors and attendance officers' pensions, evening high schools, evening elementary 
schools, immigrant schools, Department of Salesmanship, Department of Training, 
Transportation and so forth. Boston is paying for 1917 the sum of $30,000 for 
hiring school buildings. There are no children in Boston on half time or double 
sessions while there are nearly 40,000 of them in the City of New York. 

I am at all times willing to appear before your body and show official documents 
bearing out my above contentions. 

The adoption of the Boston plan would mean not only a saving for this City, 
but likewise the introduction of a system of efficiency. The same may be said of 
the Chicago plan. Nothing, however, can be achieved as long as the Department of 
Education is a political plaything controlled by one man. Therefore, I strongly urge 
upon you, gentlemen, to go on record as favoring a State investigation of our public 
school system in New York City. 

Respectfully submitted, MAX F. WOLFF. 

Conference on Organized Labor on Industrial Education of the City of New 
York, March 27, 1917. 
Hon. Harry Robitzek, 2808 3rd Avenue, Bronx, New. York: 

Dear Sir — Enclosed find copy o-f letter received by me from Mrs. J. Wolf. You 
will note that she calls attention to the fact that while her name was given to your 
Committee for further notifications of committee hearings at hearings on March 2nd, 
that so far she has not received any notification. I would suggest to you that you 
notify every principal in the Bronx that the Committee would like to have them 
give information as to the use of their school buildings with the number of classes 
of 35. 40, 45. 50, 60 and over in their schools. Also to inform your Committee as to 
the playground facilities connected with their schools if there are swimming pools, 
gymnasiums, libraries, reading rooms, outdoor baseball and athletic playgrounds. 

My reason for that is to have your Committee to get a very careful comparison 

■ m the Gary scheme as it is in Gary, Ind., and the Gary schools which we are 
supposed to have in the -Bronx. As you know there are thirteen or fourteen schools 
under this experiment in the Bronx, and public school No. 45 is pointed to as the 
model, but no consideration is given to the others, in which the school authorities 
have failed to provide almost all of the additional facilities which have been given 
to No. 45. 

You will find under this experiment many classes with over 50 pupils and in 
addition in school No. 32, you will find every class with over 50, so I would suggest 
that a letter be sent to all of the principals' requesting them to be at the meeting 
so that they may be asked officially by your Committee the actual conditions existing 
in the schools under their charge. 

I would also suggest that you send a letter to the various mothers' clubs and 
parents' association in the Bronx appearing qn the list which your Committee has 
previously used. Yours very truly, P. J. BRADY. 

P. S. — Enclosed find an editorial page from the Evening Journal of March 23rd. 
You will note a statement made by Miss Ava L. Parrott, the president of the Pro- 
fessional Elementary Teachers' Association. I believe that it would be a good plan 
for your Committee to invite her to attend the hearing in the Bronx and have her 
outline to your Committee statements made in the Evening Journal. 



265 

Frederick C. Hunter, Counsellor at Law, 80 Maiden Lane, Manhattan Borough, 
New York, March 30, 1917. 

Committee on General Welfare of the Board of Aldermen, Hon. Harry Roritzek, 
Chairman: 

Gentlemen — I was much interested at the hearing held by you last evening at 
the Borough Hall, Bronx, in listening to the various views expressed in favor of 
and against the Gary or duplicate system now in effect in certain of the public 
schools of this city. 

That system or some modified form of it is now, I believe, in force in P. S. No. 
28, situated at Anthony and Tremont Avenues, Bronx. 

I am the father of four children, three of whom are of school age and in attend- 
ance at P. S. No. 28. Also, I am a citizen and taxpayer. I am a graduate of P. S. 
No. 32, which is on West 35th Street, near 9th Avenue, and I know that the instruction 
that I received there was' thorough, as great care was then taken with the funda- 
mentals, namely, reading, writing, arithmetic, spelling, etc. 

I wish to protest against the Gary or duplicate system of education now in 
process of being installed generally in our public schools. For one thing it is very 
expensive, requiring as it does printing presses, typewriters, etc., and diverts educa- 
tional monies from the proper channels ; for it is agreed on all sides that more 
school buildings and more school teachers for elementary instruction are absolutely 
needed, and yet that need is permitted to remain without attention while large sums 
are appropriated and expended for vocational work, the beneficial effects of which 
are in grave doubt and are at least the subject of bitter controversy. 

This new system is a hardship upon parents, or rather I should say the mothers ; 
because it results in the children of the same family going to school in the morning 
at different hours, thus entailing the hardship of lunches being served at home at 
different times, and where the children live at a distance from the school as they 
do in the section where I reside it is necessary for the parents to provide money for 
lunches outside of the home as the recess hour or I should say period is too short 
for the child to go home and return in time for school. The recess period is in some 
cases less than an hour. 

The Gary or duplicate system of education is further objectionable, in my humble 
julgment, becaiise its logical result is that the pupil is not thoroughly instructed in the 
essentials or elementary school work. The knowledge acquired is purely superficial, 
and I may say that it is hardly that. The same is true of the vocational training. 
This superficial or incomplete knowledge can be accounted for in several ways. The 
main reason for it, however, is that it is not possible for the teachers, no matter how 
efficient they may be, to give that care to the students which in the nature of things 
is required. Where a teacher formerly had a class, say of 35, to instruct for a term 
of five or six months, and thus became acquainted with the children under her care 
and was able to drill them carefully, the same teacher now has a different class of 
pupils every forty minutes or so or about five classes a day, and so having to 
know some two or three hundred faces where the teacher formerly found it con- 
siderable of a task to cope with 35 or 40 pupils, it can be easily seen that the teacher 
cannot do justice' to those placed in her care, as there is an absence of that personal 
factor so necessary in school work. The teachers cannot instruct nor can the 
pupils learn. In consequence the parents at home nights have to give supplementary 
instruction. I know, because that frequently is my occupation evenings, in order 
that my children may keep up with their studies; and of the three attending school 
two of them at least are not backward students. I do strenuously object to per- 
forming the work which should be done in the schools and for which we so liberally 
pay in taxes. 



266 

In making these statements I do not mean to be understood as reflecting upon 
the teachers and principal of Public School No. 28, as I have a high regard for their 
faithfulness, ability, earnestness and efficiency. They are struggling under a. great 
handicap. In common with the other teachers and principals they cannot complain or 
object, although no one knows better than they the utter uselessness of the present 
system. 

I reside at 2182 Bathgate Avenue, Bronx, near 182d S'tr^et. In that ?ect r on there 
is a real need for a new school, or if that cannot be furnished, then temporary quarters 
should be rented to relieve us from the hardship of sending our children so far to 
school. The section is growing rapidly. I respectfully urge that you visit the section 
and see conditions for yourselves, and particularly that yo'i visit P. S. No. 23. 

Sincerely, FREDERICK C. HUNTER. 

739 Kelly Street, March 23, 1917. 
Peter J. Brady, Esq. : 

Dear Sir— Thank you for your kind letter of March 3d, and find enclosed copy 
of letter filed with the Board of Aldermen. 

Our Association heartily endorses your platform and shall also file copy with 
B. of A. 

I thought it might interest you to know that a hearing will take place in The 
Bronx on March 29th, before Chairman Alderman Robitzek. 

Although our names were entered for notification at City Hall on March 2d, I 
have no official notice as yet. 

However, 1 have invited interested mothers to a meeting to be held at my 
home, 739 Kelly Street, Bronx, to draw plans and resolutions for Thursday's meet- 
ings. 

Should you be interested to be present we would be pleased to have you give us 
any suggestions. 

However, I shall read your letter to the Mothers present. 

As I have sent the announcement to Monday's Globe as an Open Meeting, I am 
not aware of who mighl be present. 

However, 1 thank you and the members of your association for aiding in the 
ration of the betterment of conditions in our schools, thus aiding and working 
for the gool and welfare of our children. 

Thanking you, I remain Respectfully yours, (Mrs.) J. J. WOLF. 

Bronx Labor Council, 2996 Third avenue, New Wk, March 8. 1917. 

Hon. Harry RoBITZER, Chairman, Mctnhcv of Public Welfare Committee, City Hall, 
New York City: 

Dear Sir— As a representative of the Bronx Labor Council on the Conference of 
Organized Labor on Education, I am writing to every member of our Committee, to 
inform you personally tint Secretary Brady of our Council was representing the labor 
movement of Greater New York, when he appeared by your Committee on last 
Friday, March 2i\, to urge you to look into the public school conditions in this City, 
but representing The Bronx particularly. 

I hope that your Committee will hold several hearings in this County. There 
are 13 schools here, supposed to be under the Gary scheme of education experiment. 
Only one of these schools (Public School No. 45) comes anyway near being a model 
for the so-called Gary plan ; the other 12 schools are in a deplorable, over crowded 
and congested condition, from every point of view. On public school No. 45, the 
city has spent almost a half million dollars for which I am sure that a new school 
building could be erected with splendid educational facilities. 



267 

If your committee will come to The Bronx and hold some hearings, The Bronx 
Labor Council will be glad to co-opertae with you in every way. In am sure 
that the parents of the school children will turn out in such numbers that the 
meeting halls you select will not be able to accommodate them. 

Thanking you for your favorable consideration of my suggestion, I am, yours 
very truly, BRONX LABOR COUNCIL, A. Foley. 

739 Kelly street, Bronx, March 29, 1917. 
Hon. Frank Dowling, President of the Board of Aldermen, City Hall, New York 
City. 

Dear Sir — Enclosed I wish to submit a report of conditions in our school 
No. 39, Bronx, as President of the Mothers' Club of that school, as also the con- 
ditions as they exist in our school district, tabulating and enumerating conditions 
which demand correction and investigation. 

We hope that the members of the Board of Aldermen, who are on the Com- 
mittee on General Welfare of the Board of Aldermen will listen to the plea of the 
parents of our school children, whose welfare we parents have at heart. 

Thanking you for this splendid opportunity, we beg to remain members of the 
Mothers' Club of P. S. 39, Bronx. Respectfully submitted, by the President of the 
Mothers' Club. (Signed) MRS. J. J. WOLF. 

Hon. Harry Robitzek, Chairman of the General Welfare of the Board of Alder- 
men : 

Dear Sir — For the past 7 or 8 years our mothers' club has had the record of 
endeavoring to secure the establishment of proper school facilities for the proper 
education of our school children, both from the Board of Education and the City 
officials. 

During the time that the congestion was so great in our neighborhood it was 
necessary for us to hold a mass meeting in 1911 to show cause to the Hon. late 
Mayor Gaynor, Dr. Maxwell, the B. of Est., why additions should be built and 
why there was need of new schoolhouses to be built to meet the increased popula- 
tion, and it was then that our club recommended the buying of school sites and 
the erection of new school buildings. 

Since then our addition to 39 has been built, the new school at P. S. 52 and 
P. S. 48, besides we received relief by hired annexes and portable buildings. 

Some of the portable buildings which have housed our children were a dis- 
grace to the City of N. Y. 

Liberal support of education is the foundation on which the City builds. 

H. M. the citizens pay the taxes which yields the millions into the City's treasury 
appropriated yearly for the schools are qualified by knowledge of the facts whether 
the money is wisely expended or not? 

For years the school system has been the subject of contention a demand for 
adequate housing accommodations with a seat for every child has been voiced 
repeatedly, and we. have advocated then as we do now to the various city authorities 
that Votes for Women seems to be the only means of the proper solution of our 
school problems, for who is it that has the welfare of the children at heart but the 
teacher and mother? 

Our club has been represented at the open hearing of the Board of Education, 
the hearing before the Board of Aldermen Mar. 2nd, but has not taken the initiative 
until to-night as we were opposted to having had a min. allotted time given to 
such an important subject, the interests of our children and their welfare. 

Before I proceed I wish to state that through the various organizations of the 
City with whom our club has affiliated, the organized labor and mothers' and parents' 
associations, we demanded these open hearings, as we understood it for parents 



268 

and teachers and principals to give their views as to conditions which exist which 
demand correction and to determine whether conditions in the public schools are such 
as to warrant a thorough investigation by the members of the General Welfare Com- 
mittee of the Board of Aldermen. 

Therefore our club wishes to be put on record as strictly opposed to any speaker 
paid by party, personal, or foundations to take part at the hearings until the parents 
who have asked for these meetings shall be heard. 

Why do we need the Rockefeller foundations to the government of our City 
to shape the education of the youth of this country? 

Why do we need society women who have no children in our public schools 
(including the Com. of 100 who appointed themselves a Com. at the open hearing 
of the Board of Education) or agencies as the women municipal league, etc., to 
foster the Gary plan or double session plan or Wirt plan or whatever name you 
may give it. 

Why do we need the advice of these ladies to tell us that they will work on 
this committee to create public opinion without due regard to the parent of our 
school children. We parents who many of us are graduates of our City schools 
and high schools, and colleges and former teachers and have had the opportunity 
of studying school conditions having had our own children graduated from our 
present schools and high schools. 

Therefore are we not qualified to know what education in the fundamental 
subjects is essential to a good i ing, writing, spelling, arithmetic and 

grammar. 

Therefore why does the curriculum of the secondary schools which have been 
so successful in the past needs to be changed? 

Win do we need the extension of the Gary system when it is still in the ex- 
perimental stage and lias not proved its success but instead there have been many de- 
fects pointed out. 

As you all know P. S. 45 is a model school and has received generous considera- 
tion from the Board of Education as also the Board of Estimate in the matter of 
equipment and installation of the Gary plan. 

Bui how about the other schools in the experimental stage, twelve in the Bronx 
who have been entirely ignored regarding accommodations for lockers, lavatories, 
playgrounds, swimming pools, gymnasiums, baseball and basketball grounds, equip- 
ments in the shop and printing department. 

There is congestion in our schools, there is not a seat for every child, ample 
safety of children in case of fire has not been taken into consideration, there is room 
for the health authorities to improve conditions, there is part time that should be 

died, double session to be eliminated where it is not found to be the best for the 
child, taking the interests of the child into consideration, rather than the cutting 
of the expenditures, "r in other words econi 

W'e see no need of tl ian lines in our schools as it has been 

the cause of dissension in man} [tools where Gary lias not been introduced. 

Do not the public schools represent a huge investment of public funds from 
which the community rightfully demands large returns in loyal and efficient citizenship. 

What Xew York City needs is a revival of public unwillingness to have schools 
influenced by any outside agencies whether they be party, personal or foundation 
policies. 

Therefore be it resolved that our club stands opposed to the existing conditions 
found in our public schools. 

We protest against the influences of outside agencies in our schools. 

We protest against the forcing of the double session school plan for which 
many of our schools are not adequately equipped. 



269 

We protest against the drawing of sectarian lines in our schools and stand op- 
posed to have the religion brought into the schools. 

We protest against the influence of politics. 

We protest against the inadequate school facilities in our schools and high 
schools. 

We stand for more new school buildings and more high schools and better 
facilities. 

But we stand opposed to the Gary plan about to be introduced into P. S. 39 
until the other twelve schools have tried the plan sufiiciently to prove the success 
of it. 

Recommending to your committee the above report, I beg to remain, respectfully 
yours, (Signed) MRS. J. J. WOLF. 

739 Kelly Street, March 30, 1917. 
Hon. Harry Robitzek : 

Dear Sir : — It would please me very much if I could get a copy of Miss Donlin's 
report submitted at the meeting yesterday to your committee. 

She is a teacher in 39. and was speaker following me answering charges to my 
interest while unfortunately a member of Local School Board interrupted my at- 
tention so that I was unable to note what was said of the parents for just now there 
is a suit against a member for $50,000, and Miss Donlin said might have been of 
benefit to member to answer charges on April 17. 

If it is not inconveniencing you or your secretary I would be obliged for the 
above information. Thanking you I ame respectfully yours, MRS. J. J. WOLF. 

The local school board man of our district was the one to distract my attention. 
Can't understand why he did it. 

739 Kelly Street, Bronx, March 30th, 1917. 
Hon. Harry Robitzek, Chairman of the General Welfare Committee of the Board 
of Aldermen, N. Y. City : 

Honorable Sir — Enclosed please find a copy of a clipping of an article to appear 
in Sinai's Echo on Friday, March 30th, 1917. 

This article refers to my address before your honorable board last night at the 
Borough Hall pointing to the fact that the parents of P. S. 39 are opposed to sec- 
tarian lines being drawn at our school. 

Although I was able to give this report last night I deemed this a local affair 
of conditions at the school for which I have called a mass meeting in April on the 
17th, at which meeting the parents, the children, the district superintendent, the Prin- 
cipal and teachers and the members of the Board of Education, as also the mem- 
bers of your honorable board who are interested in local affairs will be invited. 

However, I shall try to send you a copy of the grievances brought at this meet- 
ing. 

I would like to call your attention to the fact that the incident has been the 
cause of a lecture, which lecture I received an announcement of in this morning's 
mail, subject "Higher Anti-Semitism," at 8.15 P. M. at Sinai Temple of the Bronx, 
951 Stebbins Avenue at East 163d Street, by Rev. Dr. Max Reichler. 

With the enclosed report I am also sending a statistical report of school 39, as 
also the number of children in our school. 

Thanking you for the splendid opportunity that your Welfare Committee offers 
the parents of our school children. 

Article to appear in "Sinai's Echo" on Friday, March 30th, 1917. 

(?) Is the matter with P. S. 39. 

Various reports have reached us about the stifling and suffocating atmosphere 
prevailing at P. S. 39. The principal of that school is reported to have said last 



270 

May to one of the mothers, Mrs. H., "You Jews have had it too long your own way 
in the Bronx.. I will show you what I can do." Many uncomplimentary remarks 
are said to have been publicly made about the parents of the children attending that 
school. On Jan. 31st, 1917, Miss B., head of one of the department, spoke in a 
contemptuous manner of a Rabbi leading one of the largest congregations in the 
Bronx, and used on that occasion the refined(?) word "sheeny," and this in the 
presence of the Jewish teacher. There seems to have been inaugurated a subtle 
method of harassing and nagging the Jewish teachers, which is the more sinister 
on account of being ingenious. It is indeed deplorable that such conditions should 
exist in a public school, in which the majority of the children are Jewish. 

There are 52 rooms in use; sittings, 2,363; kindergarten sittings, 90; auditorium, 
652 ; legal capacity, 2,019. 

Sittings for 2,363 

Legal ■ • 2,019 

344 

Therefore there are no seats for 344 children legally. We also have an indoor 
playground which was provided for when the addition was built, although we have 
found it unsanitary for our children to play in it on damp days, as the moisture 
from the ground is so great that one would think that it had rained indoors. 

And therefore this is one of the reasons our Club wishes to be put on record as 
against the rebuilding and realtering of schools which has to go on when a school is 
reorganized to be Garyized, especially when the children must occupy the building 
while the school is under construction as it was in P. S. 30, Miss Conlon's school, 
where the children were forced to occupy the building while the auditorium was 
undergoing construction. 

Therefore we stand on record as the only solution to the problem is to build 
more school houses to house the children, taking into consideration their health and 
their welfare. 

Hoping you will add the enclosed reports to those I submitted last night at the 
Board of Aldermen meeting. Thanking you for this privilege, I beg to remain, 

Respectfully yours. (Signed) MRS. J. J. WOLF. 

Bureau of Attendance Record Taken by the Principal of the School and Submitted 

to the Attendance Bureau in February, 1917. 
P. S. 39, District 24, February. 1917— Register at the Date— Whole Time Including 

5 Hours or More. 
Double session — 443 boys, 452 girls; women teachers, 21; classes. 21. 
Regular session — 201 boys, 1,243 girls; women teachers, 34; classes, 34. 

Whole Time, First Year. 
Double session — 242 boys, 240 girls; total. 432; women teachers, 11; classes, 11. 
Kindergarten classes — 107 boys, 93 girls; total, 200; women teachers, 4; classes, 4. 

Total Register of Classes up to Date. 

Boys, 993; Girls, 2,028; total, 3,021; women teachers, 70; classes, 70. 

The above report will show you the register of the children with no part time, so 
that we see no reason why Gary system is about to be installed when we do not 
need it. 

The only mistake at P. S. 30, or might I call it illegal or unrectified condition in 
our school, is that we have not a seat for every child. 

The following incontrovertible facts and figures pertaining to the school situation 
surrounding P. S. 135, situated at Church Avenue and East 49th Street, Rugby, Brook- 
lyn, X. Y. in Local School District 39, are presented to the General Welfare Com- 



271 

mittee of the Board of Aldermen to the end, we hope, that your consideration and 
recommendation of a well merited case will result in giving to the parents and scholars 
in this vicinity a much needed adequate school building together with educational ad- 
vantages extended to the more congested parts of the city. There is no logical 
reason why this service should not be equally distributed, which is not now the case 
in the Rugby section, as we will attempt to prove by this statement to your entire 
satisfaction. 

The present school building is a one-story frame structure, containing eight rooms, 
occupying leased land and was removed to its present location from P. S. 84 in March, 
1909. Ever since that time our Local School Board has persistently recommended, 
in its semi-annual reports, the purchase of a school site and the erection of an ade- 
quate building near the present location. This steadily developing section will take 
on even more rapid strides in development with the completion of the Nostrand Ave- 
nue Subway and the Utica Avenue Subway, which is but one block away. Nearby is 
the Becker Chemical Works, at present giving employment to about 1,000 men. Recent 
report has it that this concern is to become part of a $20,000,000 corporation, allying 
itself with the Schulkopf, Hartford and Hanna Company and the National Aniline 
Dye Works. . We are told that the consolidation has been effected and is only await- 
ing completion of details. Surely this means more people, more homes, more adequate 
school facilities. 

This present location is very dangerous on account of the Church Avenue trolley 
lines operating in front of the school building; the Reid Avenue line carries large 
crowds to Coney Isalnd. It is further wholly undesirable because of the noise of 
the cars. 

The City recently approved the appropriation of $70,000 for a plot 200x200, with 
a building appropriation of $543,000, on East 33rd Street to East 34th Street near 
Snyder Avenue, upon the pretext of relieving the school situation at P. S. 135. The 
City's action proves our case, but the selected location for such relief is 17 blocks 
away from P. S. 135, which is about centrally located within the school district. It 
is a physical impossibility for a child to walk this distance and return to his or her 
home for the afternoon sessions. If it were possible it would compel the child 
to walk twice back and forth covering -68 blocks during the school day, not to men- 
tion the days in inclement weather. Bear in mind, please, that East 33rd Street at 
this point is in School District 38. In passing, I might say that the Chairman of 
District 38 holds a similar view to that of our Local Board. In this connection I 
quote from the last semi-annual report of District 39, showing plainly the acute 
situation at P. S. 135: 

"Again we recommend the purchase of a site and the erection of a building 
to relieve conditions in the Rugby section. We have been recommending this 
semi-annually for years, and we have now reached a point where further delay 
or silence would constitute neglect of duty. 

"P. S. 135 is a portable building on land leased, not owned, by the City. 
"The plant is wholly inadequate for present demands. 

"The congestion in this school is so excessive that recently the Board of 
Superintendents permitted rearrangement of the course of study to omit certain 
items in order that a reasonable curriculum in deference to crowded conditions 
should be established. 

"The purchase of a site on East 34th St. between Tilden and Snyder Avenues 
has no bearing on our repeated request." 

Relative to the situation, District Superintendent, Mr. John T. Nicholson, under 
date of March 5th, 1917, reported the result of his investigation to Associate Superin- 
tendent Shallow as follows : 

"The erection of a school on this site, doubtless very necessary because of 
evident growing conditions, will do nothing to relieve P. S. 135, which is nearly 



272 

a mile distant from it. The site is much nearer P. S. 90 on Church Avenue. I 

cannot see that it will have any hearing on the crowded conditions which now 

exist at Church Avenue and East 49th Street. Rather additional land should be 

secured and a school erected, or at least six portable classrooms added to relieve 

the conditions at P. S. 135. 

"We submit present conditions as our justification for asking that this report 

be not filed without consideration of our requests." 

The General Board's answer is, "That it is hoped that the erection of a new build- 
ing on New York Avenue (which is equivalent to East 33rd Street) will relieve con- 
ditions at P. S. 135. 

Limited school facilities do not permit of the scholars at 135 receiving instruction, 
either domestic science, gymnasium, shop work, etc., to which they are justly entitled, 
equal in scope to the scholars in other sections. 

The playground is but an alleyway. There is no assembly room, no proper 
teachers' room, in fact there is absent the requisites necessary for the comfort and 
convenience of the scholars and teachers. 

Register here is 460 ; part time, 233 ; sittings, 320. You will appreciate the fairness 
of our demands with the statement that the school service is the only full service (if 
we may call it so) the city directs toward Rugby. The tax returns from real estate 
in Rugby are such that, to be fair, the City should without question supply this much 
needed want by applying here some of the funds for school building purposes. 

W'e would appreciate, Mr. Chairman, if you would appoint a committee of one from 
your Committee to accompany me at any set time to visit this location and make the 
result of his findings a part of your report, together with this and other statements. 

FREDERICK H. CAMPBELL, Member of Local School Board District 39, 
assigned to P. S. 135. 

At the regular monthly meeting of the P. A. of P. S. 93 on Jan. 6, 1916, Mr. 
David S. Rothschild (Chairman on Legislature) offered the following resolution, 
which was seconded by Mr. W. H. Murphy and carried: 

Resolved, That the P. A. of P. S. 93 send a communication to the Board of Super- 
intendents, requesting a public hearing before any report is made by them to the 
Hoard of Education relative to the proposed extending of the Gauf school organiza- 
tions ; and be it further resolved that this Association request a public hearing from 
the Board of Education before they take final action relative to the proposed extension 
of the Gary School organization ; and be it further 

Resolved, That this Association request the Board of Estimate to immediately 
grant to the Board of Education the $5,000,000 which they have agreed to give to 
the Board of Education if they would Garyize the schools of New York City, not, 
however, for Garyizing the schools, but for the purpose of experimenting with the 
Gary plan in a few schools and experimenting with the Ettinger plan in a like num- 
ber of schools, and for the further purpose of general experimenting and school bet- 
terment, so that at the end of a given period, say about two years, the Board of Edu- 
cation can take what is best from all the different plans experimented and so create a 
plan suitable to New York conditions. 

Copied from the original typewritten resolution. 

435 Fort Washington Ave., City. BUEHE ALEXANDER, Secretary. 

Borough of Manhattan (Marcus M. Marks), April 30, 1917. 
Hon. Harry Robitzek, No. 2808 Third Avenue, Manhattan : 

My Dear Alderman Robitzek — Herewith I beg to send you a copy of the brief 
to which I referred to the hearing in Public School No. 93 on Thursday evening, 
April 19th. 



273 

This brief was submitted by the Children's Welfare Committee of the Association 
of Women Principals and endorsed by the Central Committee of Local School Boards. 

Yours very truly, SARA LEVINSON, Chairman, Committee on Truancy. 

Brief on the Desirability of the Establishment of a County School for Girls. 

For some time the Association of Women Principals of Public Schools of New 
York City has felt very strongly that some adequate means for the care of the 
delinquent girl in our schools should be provided. Realizing that there must be definite 
data and statistics gathered before a claim for such assistance could be presented, the 
matter was taken up by the Children's Welfare Committee. 

As a result of about a year of study and work on this subject we wish to present 
for consideration the following points : 

1. There is a sufficiently large number of girls in our schools needing solicitous 
attention to warrant the request for a special institution for their care. 

Last spring a questionaire was sent out to all of the schools in which there were 
girls as pupils. Three questions were asked. They were general questions, but a 
personal note went to almost every principal, asking for any additional information 
or remarks which would be helpful to the Committee. Replies were received from 
two hundred twenty-nine (229) schools. The questions were as follows : 

1. How many girls are there at present in your school who should be removed 
from the school to a school established for their kind, because they are a menace 
either physically or morally? 

2. How many girls are there in your school at present showing immoral ten- 
dencies, who might be helped by such care as that given by visiting teachers? 

3. How many delinquent girls or girls having delinquent tendencies have you 
met with in your experience as principal during the last five years? 

The replies were tabulated as follows : 

No. of Schools 

Borough. Responding. Question 1. Question 2. Question 3. 

Manhattan 

Brooklyn 

Bronx 

Queens 

Richmond , 

Total 229 294 463 982 

These figures leave no room for doubt as to the necessity for such an institu- 
tion. 

2. The school should be located conveniently, but not in the city — "in the coun- 
try" — and should be conducted on the cottage plan, with a name which will in no way 
indicate its nature. 

The reasons for suggesting that such a school as we are considering be away 
from our crowded city are obvious. The girls have a complete change of environ- 
ment are not interfered with by frequent visits from relatives and friends and have 
advantages of out-door activities. The school can be more easily conducted on the 
cottage plan, as the cost of real estate is not so high. 

The cottage system is absolutely necessary as we see the plan. The varying 
types of girls as well as the varying ages make it imperative, if good work is to be 
accomplished, that the girls be classified into small groups, each occupying a separate 
cottage. 



94 


231 


328 


547 


82 


45 


93 


296 


19 


IS 


28 


76 


24 


3 


13 


55 


10 




1 


8 



274 

The name of such a home-school as this is of very great importance. If the ob- 
ject of giving girls a chance to rehabilitate themselves is to be accomplished the 
neighbors, friends and future employers of the girls must find nothing in the name 
of the school from which they come to stigmatize them. A name as non-suggestive 
as "Country School for Girls" would represent our views on the matter. 

3. All girls who are a menace to the schools for either moral or physical rea- 
sons should, for the sake of the larger number of girls, as well as for their own 
protection and future wellbeing, be admitted to a school for their special care. 

We have found in our study of this subject that the girls who have been recom- 
mended as eligible for such an institution as we have in mind may be classified as 
follows : 

Cases of: A. Sex Immorality — 

1. Girls who have been actively immoral. 

2. Girls in need of medical treatment for personal immorality; inherited disease; 
through being victimized (even though innocent). 

3. Girls with wayward tendencies who should be taken from the dangers and 
temptations of the City streets. 

Cases of: B. Theft- 
Reports have been received to the effect that there are a number of girl thieves 
among our pupils. Money is stolen from the parents to buy moving picture theatre 
tickets and fruit and candy. Often money is shared with other children who may 
thus be tempted to steal to reciprocate or for further personal gratification. 

Cases of: C. Mental Defects — 

Among the sub-normal pupils both in and out of our ungraded classes, are found 
girls who come under either of the previous classifications. They should be removed 
from the school and the neighborhood for the sake of the community as well as for 
their own good. 

Cases of: D. Physical Defect — 

Those pupils in our schools who are suffering from epilepsy are a menace to the 
well-being of the school, as attacks are apt to cause panic or confusion. Persons 
suffering from such disease very often become irritable and pugnacious in disposi- 
tion. Again, an epileptic is, according to Dr. Goodard, apt to cause imitative nervous 
degeneration in classmates. 

There should be no restriction as to age for entrance to this school nor definite 
limit set to length of stay. 

There should be no restriction as to the age of girls sent to this school, for the 
various types of delinquency mentioned are not limited to the "fourteen to sixteen" 
period. Visiting teachers testify that girls still in the elementary schools have said 
to them, "if you only had known me years ago." 

We would suggest that there be no definite time limit set in the commitment. 
Let it be understood that the girl wins return to her home by her own effort. Thus 
the school would be spared the parents' applications for the return of the daughter, 
and the girl would be spared the restlessness that she would inevitably feel and give 
expression to, if she knows she has three months or six months or a year longer to 
remain. 

4. The commitment of all suitable cases to such an institution should be made 
after obtaining the consent of parents through the agency of either the bureau of 
attendance and child welfare, or the bureau of school hygiene of the department of 
health or both, but not through the courts. 

If the matter is properly presented to the parents we feel that their consent may be 
obtained without difficulty. If they are made to understand that the girls in this 
manner removed from danger and are at the same time given an opportunity to 



275 

learn something useful so that they can, on their return, find work, the parents will 
gladly welcome the offer. The objection parents have to "putting their daughters 
away" now is that they must be sent to reformatories. The whole neighborhood 
knows what this means and consequently the family is disgraced. Then, too, they 
urge that their children's associates are worse than they are, and that they come 
back hardened rather than chastened in spirit. The parents must therefore under- 
stand just what sort of school it is to which their daughters are to be sent before we 
expect them to sign a consent. Should reasoning and explanation fail, the threat of 
court procedure will secure a signature in extreme cases. 

It is with the hope of saving these girls from becoming court cases that this 
institution is suggested, and this being so, the object would be defeated should the 
commitment come through court channels. 

In the case of mentally defective girls the authorities in charge of the institution 
should be given the legal right to commit a girl to a proper institution if it is found 
that she is beyond the possibility of being cared for there. 

5. The girls should be taught such things as will tax them physically as well 
as mentally and keep them engaged out-of-doors as well as in-doors. 

Care must be taken that sewing and needlework are not allowed, to occupy too 
much of the time, as girls of the type to be reached here are not, as a rule, fond of 
the needle. They require work which will tax their energies — gardening, carpentry, 
cooking, laundry work, scrubbing, dish-washing. Perhaps, after some time at this 
physically exacting work, some of the girls may show an inclination to profit by 
instruction in hand and machine sewing, but, as a rule, sewing as a trade is too 
sedentary and inactive to interest such girls. 

There should be walks and games and tasks to be performed out-doors to con- 
siderable extent in all seasons 

6. There should be a school-woman with the necessary experience at the head 
of such an institution and a corps of field workers or visiting teachers in the city 
to do "follow-up" work with the girls after they return home. 

That the greatest care should be exercised in the selection of the woman to be 
placed at the head of such institution, is. of course, not disputed. A woman having 
had practical experience in the care of girls of abnormal tendencies, as well as execu- 
tive experience and pedagogical training and experience, would be the only type of 
woman who could successfully carry out the work of such a school as we have in 
mind. 

When girls returned to their homes in the city, the call of old haunts and former 
associates will be strong and the assistance of woman trained along the lines of visit- 
ing teachers would be of the greatest help to the girls in strengthening their good 
impulses and counteracting the bad. There would be someone who "knew and under- 
stood," to whom the girl could go for help. There should, therefore, be a probation- 
ary or parole period following release, during which the girls would be required 
to report from time to time to the "visiting teachers," or "probation officer" as- 
signed for the case. This corps of city workers would find employment for the 
girls where that was desired, and guide their choice of recreation activities or see 
that they returned to school and follow up their attendance and progress. In any 
case, their work would be of the greatest service in making the readjustment to life 
necessary upon a return from our Country School. 

We appeal to you to establish an institution such as we have outlined as a 
preventorium for the ills from which our girls are suffering. 

The crowded, dark tenement with its cellar and roof provides temptations with 
which some of our girls are unable to cope. The Moving Picture Theatre pro- 
vides a means whereby many are led from paths of right living. It is not the film 
that does the mischief. It is the man who generously buys a ticket for the girl to 
go in to see the picture. By such "acts of kindness" the child's confidence is gained 



276 

and she is ready to accompany her new found friend wherever he may wish. If 
anything could be accomplished toward imposing a penalty upon owners of Moving 
Picture Theatres who admit girls under sixteen years of age unaccompanied during 
either afternoon or evening, many a girl would be saved from a life of misery 
and disgrace. 

In conclusion, may we bespeak your careful consideration of this brief. We 
have preventoriums for tuberculosis and for other physical ills. May we not have 
a preventorium for such girls as seem predisposed either by heredity or environ- 
ment, or both, to come into our courts as delinquents. Respectfully submitted, 

LORETTO M. ROCHESTER, Chairman, Children's Welfare Committee, Asso- 
ciation of Women Principals. 

Jessie B. Colburn, President. 
vVomen and the City's Work — Can a Department of Corrections Really Correct? 

Address by Commissioner of Corrections, Burdette Lewis, on Thursday morn- 
ing, March 9, at 11 o'clock, at League headquarters, 42 West 39th Street. Please 
bring a friend with you. 

If you were a child in Greenwich District, what would be your chances of 
growing up to useful citizenship? Where would you play after school? What 
kind of education would you receive? Would most of it be in the school or in the 
street? 

These are some of the questions which the Greenwich Branch of the Woman's 
Municipal League is answering in its report of a survey recently made of local 
schools and neighborhood conditions. This survey is part of the main study being 
made by the League in various sections of the city, and will be printed in full at 
a later date. The Greenwich section includes the district between 14th and Canal 
Streets west of Broadway. A brief summary follows : 

Greenwich District has 8 elementary schools, with 10,608 children in average 
daily attendance ; 1 high school, with 630 children. 

To accommodate these 11,238 children after school hours, there are 5 play 
spaces (total acreage, 2.59), 6 parks or squares, 1 recreation pier, 1 public gym- 
nasium, 1 play street, 2 branches of the public library, 27 churches with children 
parishioners, 4 settlements. 

Greenwich District has invested in : 

Public Schools $3,079,253 00 

Churches, including missions 3,569,500 00 

Settlements, excluding homes 245,500 00 

Public Libraries 110,000 00 

Private Library 100,000 00 

Parks (including playgrounds) 3,635,000 00 

Total $10,739,253 00 

Greenwich District spends each year for Child Welfare Work: 

Public Schools, including teachers' salaries, supplies and operation.. $587,660 00 

Churches 40,000 00 

Settlements 20,000 00 

Social Centers 3,500 00 

Kindergartens, day nurseries, Boy Scouts, etc 15,000 00 

Total $666,160 00 

Where the 11,238 Public School Children Can Go After School Hours and During 

Vacation. 
To the Greenwich District Playgrounds — 

Which have 2.59 acres, active mainly in vacation time only. 

Two squares have Play Attendants during vacation months for 7 hours daily. 



277 

The recreation pier is open from July to Labor Day from 10 to S. 
Washington Square Park has a play center during spring and summer. 
Hudson Park is open the year around without play leaders. 
The public gymnasium is open from 10 to 3 daily and every evening. 
The one play street is open daily from 3 to 6. 

To the two Public Library branches — 

Each has a children's room open in non school hours. 

Each receives a few children each morning for special library work in connection 

with school studies. 
Story hour with limited attendance once or twice a week. 
The Jackson Square Branch lends space for overflow school classes. 

To the 27 Churches — 

Sixteen churches reach children in varying degrees through clubs, lectures, classes, 
amusements, outings, gymnasiums, play rooms, etc. Only four report coopera- 
tion with the schools, and one is "ready for the Gary plan;' 

To the Four Settlements — 

These have clubs, classes, playgrounds, play rooms and kindergartens after school 
hours. 
Isn't this true of Greenwich District? 

"The school occupies the time of children on the average for only two and a 
half hours per day throughout the year. The church, settlement, library and the 
public playground do not occupy the time of all the children on the average of 
ten minutes each day, 365 days during the year, largely because of the rigid school 
programme which takes the heart of the day away from the other agencies. While 
ali the child welfare agencies outside the school occupy the children for barely two 
and one-half hours per day, the street and the alley have at least five hours a 
day. The street offers the major courses and the school the minor courses. The 
street is a most efficient school for educating children in the wrong direction." — 
From report on the reorganization of Public School 89, Brooklyn, by William Wirt. 
And still eleven million dollars are invested in Greenwich district child welfare 
agencies and these agencies spend $700,000 yearly to give children wholesome oppor- 
tunities in and out of school. 

Important Notices. 

To Members : The prompt and fairly generous response to the appeal of the 
Finance Committee for $1 from each member of the League to help carry on the 
new health programme has been very gratifying. In order to save postage receipts 
will not be sent unless specially requested. 

JULIA LOOMIS (MRS. EDWARD E.), Chairman of Finance Committee. 

Health Committee : Important health conference on Thursday, March 9, at 4 p. m., 
at League headquarters. Speakers will include representatives from the Academy of 
Medicine, the Bureau of Municipal Research, the Public Education Association, and 
the Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor. District chairmen and 
members of district health committees are especially urged to attend, as well as all 
interested in public; health. 

Washington Heights : Branch meeting at 544 West 157th Street, on Tuesday, 
March 14, at 11 a. m. 

Chelsea Branch : Through the courtesy of Mrs. Herbert, the regular meeting 
will be held on March 9 at 4 p. m. at Dr. Drummond's, 436 West 22d Street. Dr. 
Drummond has kindly consented to show his beautiful collections and it is earnestly 
requested that every member be present. Please be prompt. 

MARY WATTS CHAPLIN, Secretary. 



278 

Greenwich Branch : There will be a meeting on Monday, March 20, at 2.30 p. m., 
at the home of Mrs. Winston Hagen, 10 West 9th St., to appoint a chairman for the 
coming year. 

There will also be an important address on "Helping Children to Find Work" 
by Mr. Charles Barnes, of the State Employment Bureau. The League is beginning 
a campaign to have juvenile departments established in public employment bureaus, so 
that your particular cooperation is asked to make the meeting effective. Please bring 
a friend with you. 

Prospect Heights : Special meeting on Monday, March 13, at 10.30 a. m., at 
Pratt Casino, 181 Ryerson Street, Brooklyn. Mr. Charles Barnes, of the State 
Employment Bureau, will speak on "Helping Children to Find Work." 

Women and the City's Work — // You Were a Child in Yorkville. 

Would you envy the child in Gary, Ind.? Perhaps you would if you could learn 
some of the facts just drafted in chart form by the Yorkville Branch of the Women's 
Municipal League, as a result of their studv of what their local schools and other 
agencies provide for children. This is the first graphic presentation ever made of 
how a neighborhood provides and how it fails to provide for child welfare through 
schools, settlements, libraries, churches, playgrounds, etc. The branch made the 
study in a non-partisan spirit, and offers the facts now upon their merits only: 

Yorkville has 3 Park Department playgrounds, 4 public libraries, 14 church and 
settlement houses, 28,764 children in public schools and no children on part time, 2 
others open during summer. 

In Yorkville Schools. 
Girls have no science or shop work. 
Boys below seventh grade have no science or shop work. 

In Gary Schools. 

Girls have 80 minutes a day science or shop work two-thirds of school year. 

Boys below seventh grade have 80 minutes a day shop work and science two-thirds 
of school year. 

In Yorkville. 

Only 2,360 of the 28,764 school children play in playgrounds each day. Where do 
the other 26,404 play? 

In Gary. 

All the school children play every day in the playground. 

Playground — Open only 12 to 1 p. m., 3 to 6 p. m. 

School — Open only 9 to 12 p. m., 1 to 3 p. m. 

Settlement — Open only 3 to 6 p. m. 

Library — Open only 12 to 1, 3 to 6 p. m. 

In Yorkville these doors to open to school children only half the day. 

In Gary they are open all day and evening. 

The playgrounds, libraries and settlements of Yorkville are not large enough 
to accommodate all of the children comfortably afternoons. 

Why don't we enlarge them? No money. 

Why don't we double their capacity by doubling the hours of their use? 

The duplicate school session of Gary, by liberating half the children to use the 
playground libraries, and settlements in the morning, would double their capacity, 
without the addition of a foot of their size. 

Note — A few school rooms are used after school by volunteer agencies, but 
this proportion is so small to be negligible. 



279 

Important Notices. 

To Members — The Treasurer, grateful for the response that followed her pre- 
vious appeals in the Bulletins, begs to remind the members whose dues are still 
unpaid that the Treasury needs their annual contributions. 

The annual meeting of the League will take place on Thursday, April 13th, at 
the Cosmopolitan Club, at 9 p. m. Ballots containing the names of officers and 
directors nominated for election at that time will be posted on the bulletin board at 
the office as required by the by-laws three weeks in advance. 

Boys of 7th and 8th Grades. 
Have trice as much shopwork and three times as much science in Gary Schools 
as in Yorkville Schools. 

In Yorkville Schools. 

These boys have 80 minutes shop work, 80 to 120 minutes science each week 
throughout the school year. 

In Gary Schools. 

These boys have 400 minutes shop work and 400 minutes science each week two- 
thirds of the school year (equivalent to 266 2-3 minutes a week throughout school 
year). 

In Yorkville. 

School buildings are used S hours ; playgrounds are used 4 hours ; children's de- 
partments of libraries, are used 4 hours ; church classrooms are used Yi hour, ac- 
commodating 12,844 children (on average) of the 9-hour day. 

In Gary school buildings are used 9 hour, playgrounds are used 9 hours, chil- 
dren's departments of libraries are used 9 hours of the 9-hour day. 

These four play leaders have no children to supervise during the 4 of the 7 
hours they are on duty each day in Yorkville playgrounds because the children are 
in school. 

Under the Gary system they would be directing children's play all day. 

The Yorkville child has less play space than the Sing Sing prisoner has cell 
space: — acres of play space or '/i square yard per child. The private playgrounds 
offer less than */> acre. 

The Department of Education has closed all the Yorkville Athletic Centers 
(afternoon play centers in school yards) on account of lack of funds. Under the 
Gary plan the City can afford for every child 40 square feet of play space. 

The arbitrary increasing by the Legislature of deductions from salaries of the 
Teachers of The City of New York for pension purposes from five to over seven 
times the present deduction without even a referendum vote of the Teachers may be 
legal, perhaps it is constitutional, but is it moral? We plead with the Legislature 
not to pass the Lockwood-Ellenbogen Bill, 1173, unless we are granted a referendum 
vote upon it by secret ballot and a majority vote in favor is cast. 

Failing to obtain justice in The City of New York, if denied a referendum, then 
we plead with the State, as represented by the Legislature, to take up the cause of 
justice and postpone the vote upon Assembly Bill 1173 until the week before Easter 
Sunday, which is a holiday week for the teachers of The City of New York, so that 
the opponents Of the bill as well as those in favor of it may have an opportunity to 
be represented at Albany without making themselves liable to charges or neglect of 
duty. During holiday week those opposed can come. On school days we cannot, 
without endangering our positions. 

Question of Suit. 
Ogden Mills. Chairman, Committee of Affairs of The City of New York, to 
Miss Ava L. Parrott, President of the Professional Elementary Teachers Association, 
in regard to the suit being brought by the above-named association against The 



280 

City of New York, for the return of moneys aggregating $4,000,000, into the 
Teachers' Retirement Fund : 

Chairman Mills — "Well, the teachers get their money back, don't they?" 
Miss Parrott — (Answer) "Yes, teachers get their money back as Refunds for 
Absence, but not as annuities from the Retirement Fund. This is the custom in all 
large corporations — to pay the entire salary to the employee, in case of sickness, and 
then pay a substitute." 

More complete answer — The teachers who are entitled to it do not get it back, 
but the teachers who have lost the money get it back, in part, as Refunds. But that 
money should have gone into the Retirement Fund,' remained there, and later been 
paid to the retired teachers in the form of annuities. Then the refund for absence 
should be paid from the General School Fund. The money taken from teachers for 
absence deductions, when certified to by the Auditor of the Board of Education, is 
turned into the Retirement Fund. It then becomes a part of the Retirement Fund. 
The Charter provides that annuities shall be paid from the Retirement Fund, as 
follows : 

" The aggregate of the several sums deducted or forfeited on account of 
absence from duty shall be fully adequate to meet the demand made upon the 
public school teachers' retirement fund, for the payment of annuities as herein 
provided." 

Shortly after the passage of the Pension Law, it was discovered that no pro- 
vision had been made for an expense fund. It was necessary to go to Albany to 
obtain legislation permitting the use of $1,500 per year for expense money. 

This is additional proof that the annuities only should be paid from the Re- 
tirement Fund. 

Also, had the word "only" been necessary after "annuity," the present con- 
struction would not mean that "any" expense might be paid out of the Retirement 
Fund. 

A brief history of the facts is as follows: 

There had been a pension system in New York City for some years, without 
any deduction. 

The pension law in the Charter provided that annuities should be paid from 
the Retirement Fund. 

The Board of Education by resolution decided that the interpretation was that 
absence refunds should be paid from the General School Fund. 

Absence deductions from teachers' salaries, after certified to by the Auditor of 
the Board of Education, are turned into the Retirement Fund, and constitute the 
largest source of its revenue absences. Later, in some cases, refunds may be 
granted for excused absences. As above stated, the Board of Education had decided 
that these refunds should be paid from the General School Fund. 

This is reasonable, according to the custom with large corporations, for, if 
an employee is absent because of illness, he is generally paid his full salary. The 
firm or corporation expects to stand the additional expense of a substitute, because 
human beings cannot always be expected to be in perfect health. 

The Corporation Counsel upheld the Board of Education in its decision and 
for a number of years absence refunds were paid out of the General School Fund. 
Then the Board of Education wished more money for other purposes and con- 
ceived the idea of paying absence refunds out of the Retirement fund. 

The Corporation Counsel obligingly reversed his decision ; the refunds for 
absence were paid out of the Retirement Fund for a number of years. This on 
the face is illogical in the extreme, as it makes the teachers pay their own refunds, 
because the Retirement Fund is a fund belonging to the teachers and they would, 
therefore, be paying their own refunds. So that they would really be receiving 
no refunds at all, looking at it from the larger point of view. 



281 

Section 1092 of the Charter, Retirement Law for the Teachers of the City of 
New York, states as follows : 

"1. All money, pay, compensation or salary, or any income therefrom, for- 
feited, deducted, reserved or withheld, for any cause, from any member of the 
teaching or supervising staff of the public schools of the City of New York . . . 
shall be certified monthly to the Comptroller with the amount so forfeited, 
reserved, deducted or withheld, during the preceding month. Said amounts 
shall be turned into said Retirement Fund." 
Mr. William G. Willcox, President, Board of Education : 

"It is simply a question of transfer of moneys from one fund to another, and 
of which fund the refunds for absence should be paid out of." 
Answer — Yes, but the question as to which fund the refund for absence should 
be paid out of puts the Retirement Fund in an insolvent condition. 
They have been clever enough, however, not to take the refunds directly out 
of the Retirement Fund, but transfer them, first, to the General School Fund and 
then paid the refunds ostensibly out of the General School Fund. 

After a number of years, this practice — of robbing the Retirement Fund to 
pay the refunds for absences — so depleted the Retirement Fund that there was 
hardly anything left in it. 

Then they became alarmed ; did not let the condition of the Retirement Fund 
become known, and by plausible arguments, such as, "If you pay a 1 per cent, de- 
duction from your salaries, you will have a better hold upon the funds and a greater 
guarantee of possession." In this way they were able to put it over on the teachers 
and get them to consent to the payment of 1 per cent. 

Then they continued the robbery of the Retirement Fund, which thus had been 
rehabilitated from the pockets of the teachers themselves, until again the 1 per cent, 
became insufficient to meet the drain upon it. 

So that now all this agitation, argument, persuasion, coercion, diplomatic repre- 
sentation and misrepresentation, appeals to sympathy, civic gratitude, etc., is again 
being used to induce us to pay from 5 to 8 per cent, of our salaries — five to eight 
times as much as we had agreed to. 

Again, a vast number of teachers who know of the suit which we have started, 
to recover the four million odd dollars, are not in favor now of any pension bill, 
until it is determined whether we can get tliat money back into the fund. 
Mr. Henry Bruere, ex-City Chamberlain : 

"I personally think that it is a . . . matter, but the $4,000,000 may have 
to be returned to the fund." 

For these reasons, we are strongly opposed to the Lockwood-Ellenbogen Bill, 
1173. 

Mr. Edward Mandel, President, Men Teachers and Principals' Association : 

"It is all a matter of bookkeeping." 
Answer — (Quoted from the Secretary's Report of 1915 of the New York City 
Teachers' Retirement Fund) : 

"A very large number of interested people are not satisfied with the state- 
ment that this is all a matter of bookkeeping. It looks to them more -as if 
the City were trying to save appropriations to the General School Fund at the 
expense of the Retirement Fund." 

Mr. Willcox, President of the Board of Education, in his reference to the 
matter, omitted to speak of the fact that the refunds for absence had been paid 
out of the General School Fund for some years and that the Board of Education 
changed its policy, without any change having been made in the law, though the 
Corporation Counsel had reversed his decision. 



282 

Miss Olive M. Jones, Secretary of the Federation of Teachers' Associations: 

"I speak for 59 associations, united in the Federation of Teachers' Asso- 
ciations. Forty-one presidents voted for and two against the Lockwood-Ellen- 
bogen bill (1173) and 31 organizations of the 59 went on record in favor of 
the bill." 

Question of Representation — Composition of Federation of Teachers' Associations. 

Answer to above statement of Miss Jones : 

The Federation of Teachers' Associations is composed of the president only of 
fifty-nine so-called "Associations." 

The presidents only constitute the Federation. In other words, it is a sixtieth 
association of presidents who do not in any way represent the teachers of The City 
of New York. 

Proof of the above statement : This Federation never holds meetings which 
any teacher is allowed to attend, except one of the 59 presidents. The teachers are not 
consulted as to any of the acts of the Federation. 

The teachers do not pay dues to the Federation. But under compulsion of 
principals, or misapprehension of the composition of the Federation, believing they 
could become members of the Federation, have paid contributions into the funds 
used by the Federation. 

Furthermore, some principals have themselves paid the contributions to the 
Federation, for every teacher in their schools against the will of the teachers and 
claimed that their schools had 100 per cent, membership, so called, in the Federation. 

We know of one specific instance, where some of the teachers in a school paid 
but a quarter toward the contribution to the Federation, to partly pacify the prin- 
cipal. But a number of others, as a matter of principle, because they knew the 
Federation was working against their interests, refused to contribute anything. 

Two of these teachers saw the receipts in full from the Federation, giving the 
school 100 per cent, membership. 

We have heard of many other instances of this kind. 

This is a policy which is very rife in New York City and should be prohibited. 

A large number of the 59 associations mentioned above are paper organisations. 
Some consist of one active, or, 5, 10, 15 or 25 members. Others have an average 
attendance of 5 or 10 members. We can prove these assertions and give the names 
of the associations. 

We would urge the legislators to make an investigation of the number of mem- 
bers in each of those associations; when they went on record as in favor of the 
Lockwood-Ellenbogen Bill, 1173, and ascertain how many were present at the time the 
vote was taken. 

The Professional Elementary Teachers' Association of the City of New York, by 
resolution, January 20, 1917, went on record as requesting its president to refuse to 
join the Federation, "because it does not recognize the Federation as in any way 
representative of the teachers of the City of New York." 

This resolution was to have been forwarded to the press, but has been neglected, 
because of the stupendous amount of other work to be accomplished. 

The Interborough Association of Women Teachers, Miss Grace C. Strachan, 
President, had present at the last regular meeting of the Association 107 who voted 
in favor of the Lockwood-Ellenbogen bill, and 13 against. Due to the proportion of 
votes in that meeting, Miss Grace Strachan stated at the hearing that the Interborough 
Association of Women Teachers had voted for the Lockwood-Ellenbogen bill by a 
vote of 8 to 1. 

The Professional Elementary Teachers' Association knows that the majority of 
that audience was composed of principals and seventh and eighth grade teachers. 
And not of the kindergarten to 6B teachers, numbering 15,000. 



283 

At the last regular meeting of The Professional Elementary Teachers' Associa- 
tion, there was 125 present. We have had 200, 2S0 and 300 at these meetings. But 
action on our pension stand has been taken at every meeting, for the past five or six 
months. 

The membership in the associations which the presidents of the Federation claim 
to represent are duplicated in all these associations many times over. Some of the 
men belong to 27 of the 59 "varieties." 

This one fact conclusively disproves claim that the Federation represents the 
teachers, especially when it is known that the entire personnel of all these associations 
does not comprise a majority of the teaching force. 

Ogden Mills, Chairman of the Committee on Affairs of the City of New York, 
to Miss Mary Meagher, President of the Elementary Teachers' Association, at the 
conclusion of her written statement: 

Mr. Mills — "I don't understand this. Here is an association called the 'Elementary 
Teachers' Association' and another called 'The Professional Elementary Teachers' 
Association,' both claiming to represent the elementary teachers. And one president 
is in favor of the bill and the other president is opposed to the bill. Which repre- 
sents ?" 

Answer (given by Grace C. Strachan, President of the Interborough instead of 
the President of the Elementary Teachers' Association) : 

"The Elementary Teachers' Association was formed eleven years ago ; is an 

association in good standing; has a large membership and belongs to the Federa- 
tion of Teachers' Associations." 

The Truth About the Elementary Teachers' Association. 

The following statement is made absolutely necessary for the salvation of the 
teachers of the kindergarten to 6-B Group : 

As president of The Professional Elementary Teachers' Association, I have been 
many times urged to make the following statement in the public press, but have de- 
sisted, because I dislike to attack any other Association. But when it comes to 
such misrepresentations being made as the statement of Miss Grace Strachan — just 
quoted above — it becomes absolutely necessary, in the self defense of the 15,000 kin- 
dergarten to 6-B Teachers, to divulge the following facts : 

For several years, the president of The Professional Elementary Teachers' Asso- 
ciation, Ava L. Parrott, was a member of the old 1-A to 6-B Association, as the 
Elementary Teachers' Association was then called. She continued to be a member 
until after the action of the president of the old 1-A to 6-B Association in regard 
to the Lockwood-Ellenbogen Pension Bill of the Spring of 1916. 

While a member, the present president of The Professional Elementary Teachers' 
Association tried, times without number, to obtain action in the 1-A to 6-B Associa- 
tion, upon various motions. With the exception of two or three times in a period 
of at least two years, there were never more than five or ten members present. At 
no time could the members, whether at the smaller meetings, or when a possible 
20 were present, force the president, Mrs. Mary Meagher, to put a motion through, 
seconded by every one in attendance and though the question was repeatedly called 
for. Either the president of the new termed Elementary Teachers' Association did 
not know how to put a motion (she seemed totally unfamiliar with parliamentary 
procedure), or else she would not put a motion. 

The President of The Professional Elementary Teachers' Association was then 
told that Mrs. Mary Meagher was placed in that position by Miss Grace Strachan and 
that the old 1-A to 6-B Association, was formed — as Miss Strachan stated at the 
hearing — "11 years ago." But Miss Strachan did not state that the Association was 
formed by her as a "safety valve" for the indignation of the Kindergarten to 6-B 
Group, when this group learned that they had not received Equal Pay and had re- 
ceived so much less than they had expected. 



284 

Miss Strachan knew that with Mrs. Meagher as president of that association she 
had nothing to fear from it, which up to last spring was the only one claiming to be 
composed of only 1-A to 6-B teachers. 

The president of the Professional Elementary Teachers' Association has also been 
informed by many that Mrs. Meagher's husband was a political satellite of Miss 
Grace Strachan. 

The president of the Professional Elementary Teachers' Association cannot prove 
these statements, and has taken no steps to do so; but has heard them from so many 
sources and the circumstantial evidence upon each and every occasion is so strong 
as to be "Confirmation strong as Holy Writ." 

Witness, for instance, the interposition of Miss Grace Strachan in defense of the 
Elementary Teachers' Association when Mrs. Mary Meagher was interrogated regard- 
ing it by Senator Mills at the hearing March IS. 

In the spring of 1915 the old 1-A and 6-B Association went on record as opposed 
to the Lockwood-Ellenbogen bill — Compromise Pension Bill — by a vote of 18 to 13. 
Teachers in one school, strongly opposed to the bill, had attended in a body, in order 
to have one association where the 1-A and 6-B group should have legitimate and 
proper representation go on record as opposed to the bill. It required almost a riot 
to force a vote on the question. In fact, the president left the meeting. But we put 
the treasurer in her place as temporary chairman and forced a vote against the bill 
by a majority of five, as stated. 

The thirteen voting in favor of the bill were either then eligible for retirement 
or strong adherents of Miss Grace C. Strachan. 

The association, however, had gone on record as oposed to the bill by a majority 
vote. The president, Mrs. Mary Meagher, went to Albany and lobbied in favor of 
the bill. 

After this incident, Ava L. Parrott, the president of the Professional Elementary 
Teachers' Association, decided that it was necessary for the protection of the kinder- 
garten to 6-B group — the rank and file of the teaching force of New York City — 
to actively push another association, which had been quietly organized two years before 
under the name of the Professional Teachers' Association. 

After the above stated action of the president of the old 1-A to 6-B Association, 
the name was changed from the Professional Teachers' Association to the Profes- 
sional Klementary Teachers' Association. After the adoption of this name the old 
1-A to 6-B Association changed its name to the Elementary Teachers' Association. 
The word "Professional" is, therefore, our only means of identification. 

The Professional Elementary Teachers' Association then began active work for 
the teachers of this group. 

We leave it with the Legislators, with the Committee on Affairs of the City of 
New York, and with Senator Ogden Mills, chairman, to judge, in the light of the 
facts above stated, which association "represents" the fifteen thousand teachers of the 
Kindergarten to 6-B Group — who teach the future masses of the City of New York. 

William G. Willcox, President of the Board of Education: 

"The Board of Education voted unanimously for the Lockwood-Ellenbogen 

Bill. It is seldom that the Board of Education is unanimous upon any question, 

but they were all united in their endorsement of this bill." 

Answer— The members of the Board of Education are all appointed by Mayor 
Mitchel. 

William G. Willcox, President of the Board of Education: 

"I have all sympathy for the teachers who are in need of retirement, but I 

wish to plead for the children who are suffering by having teachers over them 

who are blind, deaf, and otherwise physically unable to perform their duties." 

Answer — The Board of Education is now granting leave of absence from the 
General School Fund on 40 per cent, of the salary to many who could not be retired 



285 

under the law, as there is not at present sufficient money in the Retirement Fund to 
retire them. The Board of Education can take care of the remainder in need of 
retirement by inducing the Comptroller to grant sufficient funds to the General School 
Fund to enable the Board of Education to grant those teachers who are in such grave 
need of retirement leave of absence on half-pay. 

Half-pay for the Kindergarten to 6-B teachers would be $750,000 per year, which 
would be the same amount as the pension for this group. 

The Board of Education a few months ago reduced leave of absences on half-pay 
to 40 per cent, of the salary, with a minimum limit of $720. 

The Professional Elementary Teachers' Association protested against this reduc- 
tion from this already meagre stipend for worn out teachers. 

Mr. William G. Willcox, President of the Board of Education, in the last sen- 
tence of his reply, wrote: 

"The small sum of thirty dollars is not sufficient to cause you any alarm ! 

Thirty dollars on $750 not sufficient to cause alarm ! 

Twenty-five per cent, reduction on a $750 stipend ! 

Whatever is just and fair and a benefit to the teacher is just and fair to and 
benefits the child. 

Boards of Education have never as yet seemed to realize this. 

"Sympathy for the children" is spoken of. 

But how will the arbitrary increase of the deductions from the teacher, six and 
seven times, react upon the child? 

Mr. Henry Bruere, City Chamberlain, spoke of " Sympathy for those in need of 
retirement." We have already explained how they could be taken care of by the City. 

Should the Present Teaching Force, from Charity, Do What the City Refuses to 
Fulfill As a "Moral Obligation?" 

Mrs. M. J. Lamson, President, Retired Teachers Association : 

"Those preventing pension legislation this year are assuming a grave respon- 
sibility." 

The answer to this remark is found above. We are not assuming it. The City 
should. 

Effect of no Legislation This Year Upon Retired Teachers. 

Mrs. M. J. Lamson, President, Retired Teachers' Association : "The retired 
teachers are suffering." 

Answer — The retired teachers have been and are receiving their full pensions from 
the one per cent, deduction which the teachers of the present teaching force are still 
paying into the Insolvent Retirement Fund, and also from the $300,000 of the Sinking 
Fund, which the present active force voted to release for the benefit of those retired 
teachers. 

For a few months the payments to the Retired Teachers were partially delayed — 
before the release of the $300,000 from the Sinking Fund but the president of The 
Professional Elementary Teachers' Association has information from the most re- 
liable authority possible, that there will be sufficient money to pay annuity of those 
already retired, as they fall due, in the future — owing to the rapid mortality, which will 
increase : 

It is thus shown that both those already retired and those in need of retirement 
can be taken care of by the City of New York, without additional expense to the City. 

Reason for the Statement, "Without Additional Expense." 
When a $1,500 teacher of the Kindergarten to 6B Group is retired a $720 teacher 
takes her place. The pension of the $1,500 teacher is $750. Adding the $720 for the 
incoming teacher and $750 for the outgoing teacher, makes a total cost for the posi- 



286 

tion of $1,470. Before the retirement of the teacher, that position was filled by a 
person drawing a $1,500 salary. The difference between $1,470 and $1,500, is $30. As 
this salary of the incoming teacher remains stationary for three years, the City 
saves $90 during the first three years, when it retires a teacher. Figuring the total 
cost to the City of salaries and pensions, balancing one against the other, as should 
be done, it develops that pensions of the teachers of the Kindergarten to 6B Group 
cost the City but $230 odd for six years. 

Dr. Berg, of the United Real Estate Owners Association said : 
"Teachers have the highest salaries of any City employees." 

Answer — The 15,000 teachers of the Kindergarten to 6B Group receive $720 for 
the first three years, reaching a maximum of $1,500 at the end of the sixteenth year. 
This gives a wage of $13.70 per week, as a minimum, after six or seven years training 
and $28.55, after sixteen years teaching and six or seven years preparation. 

Salary Schedule and Brief of the Professional Elementary Teachers' Association for 
the Kindergarten to 65 Group. 

At a regular meeting of the Professional Elementary Teachers' Association, held 
at the World Building, March 6, 1917, the following supplementary brief upon the 
question of a new salary schedule for the kindergarten to 6B group, was unanimously 
endorsed. 

In view of the soaring prices in the cost of living, since the adoption of the former 
salary schedule, previously forwarded to the Board of Education by The Professional 
Elementary Teachers' Association, said Association amends its former schedule as 
follows : 

(1) Minimum salary, $1,000. 

(2) Annual increment, $84. 

(3) Maximum salary, $1,840. 

(4) Maximum salary reached in ten years. 

(5; Annual increment to begin at beginning of the second year. 

(6) Bonus for classes having 40 per cent, boys, $104. 

(7) Total salary for boys' classes, $1,944. 

Supplementary Reasons for Above Schedule. 

First — Prices have continued to soar since the adoption of the first schedule, 
so that $1,720, the former maximum suggested, would be totally inadequate. 

Second — The Professional Elementary Teachers' Association still insists that the 
City of New York should pay no teacher in its employ less than $1,000. 

It" $S40 two years and a half or three years ago was the minimum wage for un- 
skilled labor — even if that laborer had to support a family of five or three— the Pro- 
fessional Elementary Teachers' Association, representing the interests of the 15,000 
Kindergarten to 6 B teachers, holds that certainly a teacher should receive at least 
$160 more per year than an unskilled laborer. 

Furthermore, $840 was the figure nearly three years ago. 

According to a table, as printed in the "American Teacher" of January, 1917, 
which tables are quoted as being submitted by Mr. Earle Clark, of the Russell Sage 
Foundation, with recent letters from Mr. Leonard W. Hatch, Chief Statistician of the 
State Industrial Commission, the original minimum salary of the Kindergarten to 6 B 
group of $720,000 from 1892 to 1899, had in the year 1916 an actual purchasing power 
of $418. 

The equivalent salary in 1916 to restore the original purchasing power would 
need to be $1,241. These being the scientific figures, based upon percentages of in- 
crease in the cost of living. 

Surely New York City should increase that minimum salary of $720 to at least 
$1,000 — which would then be $241 less than the actual purchasing power of the $720 
original salary, when originally given. 



287 

Admitting that the $840 minimum salary for unskilled labor, as quoted from the 
reports of Comptroller Prendergast, of over two years ago, includes the support of 
a family of either three or five, the majority of the women teachers in the Kinder- 
garten to 6 B group have families to support — who will not live to in turn support 
them. 

It is also a fact, stated by scientific investigators and statisticians, that those 
performing mental work, and under an intense nervous strain, must have far more 
delicate, and therefore expensive food, than men laboring in the open air. This 
certainly applies to a teacher, as contrasted with a man laborer, even though he be 
supporting a family larger than a teacher's family. 

A teacher has to give at least six or seven years in training, as contrasted with 
an unskilled laborer. 

Teachers should dress better than they are able to under the present schedule. 

They should be able to live, in order to do their best work, in surroundings 
where they may obtain sufficient needed rest at night. This in New York City is an 
expensive luxury. 

In the previous brief of The Professional Elementary Teachers' Association the 
salaries paid in Denver, Colorado, were quoted. A comparison with New York to 
place the minimum salary for a teacher at $1,000 at the lowest. 

Fourth — Attendance officers receive $900, with comparatively no preparation, and 
sometimes comparatively little education. 

Again, an examination of the City Record will disclose that in the Department of 
Bridges a woman stenographer and typewriter receives an annual salary of $1,500 
in her fifth year of service. In the same department a woman telephone operator 
receives $900 in her sixth year of service. 

Fifth — If the telephone operator receives $900 after six years surely a teacher 
should receive $1,000 in her first year. 

In the Department of Education, office of City Superintendent, there are women 
stenographers at $1,000; women clerks at $1,640 annual salary; women working as 
stenographers and typewriters at $1,650,000 annual salary. (See City Record, June, 
1912, page 85.) 

Again, in the Department of Education, women attendance officers receive 
$1,500 maximum salary after nine years' service. (City Record, June, 1916, page 24.) 
Sixth — If a women attendance officer receives $1,500 maximum salary after nine 
years, it is axiomatic that the teacher should receive vastly more than that. 

One woman attendance officer with three years of service to her credit receives 
a salary of $1,050. (City Record, June, 1912, page 90.) 

A teacher with three years to her credit receives $720.00. 

This is almost incredible ! ! 

Seventh — If an attendance officer, after three years, receives $1,050.00, certainly a 
teacher should receive $1,000.00 during the first year. 

A woman attendance officer, appointed in 1913 received a $1,200.00 salary, with 
$150.00 raise (City Record, 1916, at page 24). 

In the Department of Buildings a woman stenographer has an annual salary of 
$1,650.00 (City Record, 1916, page 22). 

Stenographer' to Corporation Counsel, appointed 1915, salary $1,500.00 after one 
year (City Record, 1916, page 8). 

A teacher received $1,500.00 after 16 years of service. 

It is unnecessary to state the reason for this: 

It is obvious! 

A clerk in the Bureau of Accounts, appointed 1902, receives $1,800.00. Increased 
$150.00 (City Record, page 7, 1916). 

Department of Finance: Clerk receives $2,250.00 (City Record, 1916, page 2). 



288 

In view of the above comparisons, can the Board of Education hesitate for one 
instant to adopt schedules at least as favorable as those submitted in this brief? 
That is to say, $1,000.00 minimum and $1,840.00 maximum, after 10 years? 

In regard to the present $1,500.00 maximum, from 1892 to 1899, for the above 
mentioned group, the same table above quoted gives $870.00 as the actual purchasing 
powe<- of $1,500.00 in 1916. 

The same table gives $2,586.00 as the equipment salary in 1916, to restore the 
original purchasing power of the $1,500.00 salary. 

Eighth — The Professional Elementary Teachers' Association, therefore, feels that 
in asking for a maximum of $1,840.00 it is requesting $746.00 less than the equivalent 
salary under which its members entered the school system. 

Ninth — The Professional Elementary Teachers' Association, as always, believed 
in a bonus for boys. 

(1) Because they are more difficult to discipline and exhaust the physical strength 
and wear upon the nerves of the teacher, to a far greater degree than girls. 

(2) It is also a question to the members of this Association as to whether or 
not mixed classes are for the best interests of the children. 

We believe the consensus of opinion among all the teachers at large would be 
against this policy, in the interests of the children. 

The Board of Education is probably familiar with the decrease of 50 per cent, 
in the registration in the Training Schools during the past year. This fact is suf- 
ficiently significant, without elaboration. 

A case is known to the president of this association of a recent girl graduate 
from the Wadleigh High School. This graduate took the last Federal examination 
for first grade clerk. She was appointed at once, and receives a salary of $840 to 
$1,100. 

N. B. — No Training School or Normal College education necessary. She has 
also a chance to become second and third grade clerk in the near future without ad- 
ditional education. 

Tenth — The fundamental argument upon which The Professional Elementary 
Teachers' Association bases its request for the enclosed salary schedule, in an article 
published in "The Globe" February, 1916, entitled "Make Teaching Attractive." 

This article states that "The Institute for Public Service begins to appeal to 
colleges and high schools, to make teaching as profession and as stepping stone — 
attractive to ablest boys and girls." Then follows a long list of leading educators ; 
scores of high school principals; city superintendents; residents of Normal schools, 
etc., who are to deliver lectures, picturing the attractiveness and rewards of teaching, 
convincingly to students, between Lincoln's and Washington's birthdays. 

N. B. — There were no grade teachers included in the list. 

The article states that it has been suggested that "special emphasis" be placed 
upon the "spiritual and material rewards of teaching." 

The Professional Elementary Teachers' Association calls the attention of the 
Board of Education and Legislature to the fact that if such a series of lectures is 
even being thought of at headquarters and in high places it is the most convincing 
proof that any Board of Education can need, that both the spiritual and certainly the 
material rewards of teaching are becoming in the minds of prospective teachers 
a negligible quantity. 

Submitted by THE PROFESSIONAL ELEMENTARY TEACHERS' ASSO- 
CIATION OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK, Ava L. Parrott, President. 

Maude R. Osborne, Secretary. 

If the Kindergarten to 6 B Group is asking this legitimate increase in Salaries, 
how can they afford greater deductions for pensions? 

We need higher Salaries, not higher Pensions, and increases in Salaries which 
will not be Taken Away from us by High Deductions for Pensions. 



289 

Replies to Objections of Real Estate Associations. 

Dr. Berg of the United Real Estate Owners' Association: 

"The teachers should work to put more money into the Treasury. (The idea 

being — not an exact quotation — to find additional sources of revenue.)" 

Answer — They should. So should the real estate people and taxpayers generally 
Both should do constructive work. 

The president of The Professional Elementary Teachers' Association started such 
a movement in two other associations ; it is very gradually developing, and our as- 
sociation will push such a movement with vigor just as soon as pensions and salaries 
have been settled. 

We will then, with the aid of competent counsel, find means of adding revenue 
to the general treasury from new sources. 

A man had better be dead than a criminal — if you consider the material cost 
of the City of New York. Therefore his ethical development, and character, are 
of greater financial value to the City than his physical preservation. Therefore the 
work of the teacher is of greater monetary value, in actual dollars and cents, to the 
community, than the work of the policeman and fireman, who save only the physical 
life, while the teacher saves his moral life. 

But the monetary consideration given the rank and file of the teaching force, 
both in salaries and pensions, does not equal that awarded these protectors of the 
physical being. When will taxpayers realize this actual fact, that teachers lessen their 
taxes rather than increase them. 

Points of Difference Between Central Pension Committee and the Lockwood-Ellen- 

bogen Bill 1173. 

William G. Willcox, President of the Board of Education : 

"There are three main points of difference between City officials and the 

pension committee of 150: (1) The rate of deductions." 

Answer — This was passed over very lightly. What they are to receive and 
what pay for it, is the main proposition. 

Is it a slight difference to increase one's payment 3, 4, 5 or 6 times, for the 
same sum, or three times for a less sum? 

The 15,000 teachers of the Kindergarten to 6-B Group earn salaries of $13.70 
per week for the first three years ; $28.55 per week after sixteen years' teaching. 
They must think of ordinary existence. It amounts to no more than actual existence, 
with the demands made upon the teacher. No music, no theatre; no candy; no 
private library; no sufficiently delicate or nourishing food; no fitting wearing ap- 
parel; no appropriate, congenial, restful surroundings. 
"2nd point of difference, Retirement Board." 

Answer — Not considered a vital question in the minds of the Kindergarten to 
6-B Group, provided the administration of the fund is well guarded by Legislative 
enactment. 

"3rd Point of Difference, Reserve Fund." 

Answer — This is a question far in the future. The present — in which we all 
have to live — is /of more immediate concern. 

There are two other points of difference, not mentioned by Mr. Wilcox or Mr. 
Bruere. 

(a) A vital point — the rates of deduction from salaries may be changed imme- 
diately after the passage of the Act. (Page 12, lines 4 to 14.) 

(b) In option one (page 30), "the balance of the present value of his annuity, 
his pension, or his retirement allowance, as it was at the time of his retirement, is paid 
to his legal representatives," etc. 



290 

This makes no allowance for compounded interest at four per cent. 

(c) Several lawyers have stated to the president of The Professional Elementary 
Teachers' Association, that "It would take a Philadelphia lawyer to tell what the City 
Pension Bill does really mean." This ambiguity would lead to endless litigation. 

To sum up : 

The main objections of The Professional Elementary Teachers' Association to 
the passage of the Lockwood-Ellenbogen bill (1173) are: 

First — This Association wishes the true condition of the Retirement Fund to be 
decided by the Courts, before the passage of any new pension bill. 

Second — The rates in the said bill are exorbitant, and assume a non-existent fact 
— that the salaries are sufficiently high to warrant these deductions. 

Third — Circulars are sent out, even to other cities, from the office of the Board 
of Superintendents, under date of October, 1914, advertising the pensions in New 
York City, the rate of deduction, years of service required, etc., so that those coming 
into the system, at even as late a date as this mentioned, counted upon receiving this 
pension at the one per cent, deduction. 

Fourth — The teachers of the City of New York all believed that the Treasury 
of the City was back of the teachers pension bill. They did not know that the clause 
which is in the Policemen's and Firemen's pension bill, had been omitted from the 
Teachers' pension law, viz., that the City shall make up any deficit. Nor did they 
understand the significance of the "Little Joker" that "only as many shall be retired 
in any one year as the fund will support." 

Fifth — The present active teaching force has counted upon this specific pension 
at a specific deduction, and has arranged its living expenses in accordance therewith. 
To increase the deduction now- will for them work grave hardship. 

Solution. 

(1) The City of New York to give a Referendum Vote on the Lockwood- 
Ellenbogen bill, 1173, to the teachers of the City of New York. 

(2 1 Postpone pension legislation this year, until the suit instituted by The 
Professional Elementary Teachers' Association for the return of $4,000,000 to the 
Retirement Fund is decided. 

i I i Make mandatory upon the Comptroller of the City of New York the in- 
creasing of the three mills for the General School Fund to five mills. This will 
pay salaries and grant all in need of retirement leave of absence on half-pay 
(the same as pensions). 

Four mills is needed now for salaries, were the vacancies filled and the size 
of classes reduced. 

(4) Make it mandatory that the fifth mill be used for granting leave of absence to 
those in need of retirement. 

A Suggestion. 

Five mills would mean all salaries and pensions out of the same fund, having an 
active and inactive payroll, with no complicated insurance scheme, involving thousands 
of dollars for a large pension bureau. 

(5) Enact the above suggestion into law. 

Figures cannot be juggled in such a way as to put an annuity and pension 
scheme upon an actuarial basis which will not work grave injustice to many 
different groups of teachers in the present active force. 

If the suggestions here incorporated do not meet with the approval of the 
Legislature, the Professional Elementary Teachers' Association will either back a 
Teachers' Representative Assembly of The City of New York, in continuance of the 
work of The Central Pension Committee of 150, or will frame a bill of its own— 



291 

after the decision regarding the suit— which will be just to the City and to all groups 
of teachers. 

THE PROFESSIONAL ELEMENTARY TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION, Ava 
L. Parrott, President. 

Mary C. Burke, Secretary. 

School and Society — The duplicate school is an educational asset, being an 
account of the introduction of the Gary School organization in New York City. 

1. Theory of the Duplicate School — One of the most pregnant conceptions of 
modern philosophy is Herbert Spencer's definition of life as a continuous adjust- 
ment. The school is a social institution. It lives by continuous adjustment. The 
life of a people determines its educational ideals. As the mode or standard of life 
changes, the school must change also. Every generation must formulate its own 
educational creed. The school of any age is an expression of the dominant ideals 
of the time. This explains the constant unrest in the educational world. Discus- 
sions, agitations, reforms, revolutions are all evidences of adjustment. 

" Nothing is secure," says Emerson, " but life, transition, the energizing spirit 
* * * People wish to be settled; only as far as they are unsettled is there any hope 
for them." The cemetery is the only place for rest, and peace and permanence. 
The criticism of the existing order and the clamor for change are to be looked 
upon not as evils, but as symptoms of life and health and progress. 

The Gary school, the duplicate school, the " modern school," the " schools of to- 
morrow " are all evidences of the great law of adjustment by which life is main- 
tained. 

1. Changed Social and Economic Conditions — The common school was origi- 
nally. 

Paper read before the Department of Superintendence, National Education 
Association, at Kansas City, Mo., March 1, 1917. 

Adapted to a relatively simple social organization, when industries were diffused 
in many small units and hand labor was the rule. The children's participation in 
industrial processes was then quite as much a part of their education as the lessons in 
school. It occupied far more hours of their time than school work? It was part of 
the process of adjustment to their environment. The adjustment has been dis- 
arranged because, while the school remains essentially what it was in the simple 
days of old. the environment is totally different. The duplicate school is an attempt 
to adjust the child to the kind of society we have at present. 

2. Historical Retrospect— A review of the writings of modern educational 
reformers from Rousseau to date, will show that the following ideas have received 
emphasis from one or more of the authors: (1) Physical education and play; (2) 
manual training; (3) sense-education; (4) nature study; (S) motivation, or interest; 
(6) drawing as a mode of expression; (7) utilitarian principle of studies; (8) the 
art of action, or learning by doing, or learning by living; (g) self-activity, or 
initiative; (10) freedom of discipline, or self-government; (11) education as develop- 
ment; (12) impression and expression; (13) intellectual liberty of the child; (14) 
creative activity as the essence of education. 

The duplicate school at its best embodies all these ideas. 

3. Learning as a Necessity.— Not only must we constantly readjust the school 
to meet social and economic changes, but we must change our point of view as to 
the method in education, in accordance with new insight gained through progress in 
psychology. The theories of interest and effort are alike in one respect. They both 
assume that learning is naturally a hateful thing to a child, and therefore one under- 
takes to cajole the child by endowing knowledge with an artificial interest, while the 
other keeps him at his tasks by the threatening hand of authority. The truth of the 
matter is that learning is as necessary to the mind of a child as food is to his body 



292 

From the moment of the first awakening of the infant intellect there is a ceaseless 
exploration of the universe in quest of knowledge. The life of the child is wholly 
engrossed in play, and play is nature's school. Rousseau was the first educator to 
see clearly that learning in the form of play is a part of the process of self- 
preservation and growth. Hence, as Professor Dewey has said, if we want to find 
out how education takes place most successfully we shall have to study the experiences 
of children where learning is a necessity, that is, outside of school. 

A. A Child's World. — Many wealthy parents send their children to country 
schools for city boys, where the children are busy at work, study or play from 9 to 5 ; 
but, as Mr. Wirt says, taking children away from the city to secure the desired 
environment is running away from the problem. We need to create a child world 
within the adult world of the city that will give children the right environment in the 
city itself. Fortunately the facilities necessary for creating such a child world can 
also be used by adults. Thus by solving the problem in the city itself we not only 
create a suitable environment for the rearing of children, but this same environment 
of swimming pools, playgrounds, gymnasiums, libraries, auditoriums, shops and 
laboratories is available for use by these children as well as adults after they have 
been successfully reared. By creating a suitable environment outside of the city, 
if it were possible to do so for all children, we would have the environment for the 
children only while they are in school. When they must quit school, no satisfactory 
environment would exist within the city, where the children must live, for living the 
type of life for which they have been trained. 

5. Summary. — Summarizing the theories of Dewey, Snedden, Wirt and other 
reformers of the day, we find the following demands, every one of which is supplied 
by the duplicate school : 

1. A course of study which provides for the education of the body as well as 
of the mind, both for the development of bodily health and strength and to provide 
an apperceptive background for abstract studies through muscular activity. 

2. A form of school organization more flexible than the present, for the pur- 
pose of adapting the school to local communities, to the various social groups — 
industrial, professional, artistic — and to children of varying abilities and tastes. 

3. A recognition of the value and dignity of manual labor as an element of 
personal efficiency and good citizenship. 

4. The elements of vocational education for all children, at a cost within the 
means of the taxpayers. 

5. An enlarged conception of the educational values of play under the super- 
vision of competent teachers, instead of the unsupervised play of the street and 
alley. 

6. The socialization of the teacher and the child; that is, giving each the view 
that the school is for the production of good citizens, and that action rather than 
knowledge is the ultimate aim of education. 

7. Preparation of children to discharge their duties of citizenship in a democ- 
racy. 

The reorganization of the Bronx schools has had the effect of breaking up their 
rigidity. Things that formerly were solid as rock are in a state of flux. The 
schools are now plastic for principals to do with them largely what they will, even 
to the modification of the course of study and in some cases the making of new 
courses. 

See Taylor's "A Handbook of Vocational Education," pages 5-10. This means 
the democratic ideal in school discipline, and the largest possible development of 
initiative, self-direction and the assumption of responsibility 

8. The teaching of science in laboratories by the heuristic method. 

9. The teaching of music and drawing in studios by specialists. 



293 

10. Co-operation of the school with other child-welfare agencies, to prompt 
efficiency and economy of effort. 

11. A complete and continuous use of the school plant, so as to justify the 
enormous investment of capital by ample dividends in the form of social uplift. 

2. Origin of the New York Experiment — 

In June, 1914, a party of New Yorkers, consisting of Mayor Mitchel, Chamberlain 
Bruere, the President of the Board of Education and several other persons visited 
Chicago, Cincinnati and Gary for the purpose of studying various types of vocational 
education. As a result of that visit, Dean Schneider, of the University of Cinicinnati, 
and Superintendent Wirt, of Gary, were invited to come to New York at an annual 
salary of ten thousand dollars each for the purpose of conducting educational experi- 
ments. 

Dean Schneider was to install his well known co-operative part-time scheme in 
connection with certain of our high schools, and Mr. Wirt was to organize six schools 
in accordance with his work, study and play program. The Board of Estimate 
promptly provided the money ($150,000) with which to finance the experiments. By 
October, 1914, five prevocational schools were ready for work. Mr. Wirt, who, up to 
this time time had not been actually employed or consulted, informed the city authori- 
ties that these schools differed fundamentally from the type developed by himself, 
and that he could not use them to make his experiment. They have therefore ever 
since been known as "prevocational schools." In the budget adopted for the year 1915 
the further sum of $236,500 was set aside for experimental work in vocational training. 

In November, 1914, Mr. Wirt reorganized Public School 89, Brooklyn, and the 
following March the Board of Education approved the organization and requested 
the issue of corporate stock in the amount of $50,000 to build an addition to the school 
in accordance with Mr. Wirt's recommendation. 

On or about February 1, 1915, Mr. Wirt reorganized Public School 45, Bronx, 
which is in my district. During the same month Mr. Angelo Patri, the principal of 
this school; Mrs. Alice B. Ritter, the principal of Public School 89, Brooklyn, and 
myself were sent by the Board of Education to Gary, Indiana, for the purpose of 
studying the schools. I spent four .days in this investigation, accompanied by Mr. 
Wirt, who explained every detail of the organization in relation to the aim of the 
whole. 

Some time in March I submitted to Mr. Wirt the details of the remarkable con- 
gestion in twelve schools situated within a radius of half a mile from my office. 
There were 36,000 children in these schools to be accommodated in 25,000 seats, and 
thus 20,000 children were forced on part time. Mr. Wirt at once made a survey of the 
twelve buildings, and in April made a report to the Board of Education explaining 
what he could do to relieve congestion by organizing duplicate schools. He estimated 
that for about seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars he could abolish all part time, 
enrich the course of study, supply prevocational training, and provide seats for ten 
thousand additional children. In due time this report was referred to me for an 
opinion as to the necessity and desirability of the proposed changes. I promptly ap- 
proved the plan, and on June 23, 1915, the Board of Education requested funds to 
carry out Mr. Wirt's recommendations. By July 1 the Board of Estimate had appro- 
priated the funds, and the work of reconstruction began. 

3. Extent of the Experiment — 

The funds already available for new construction, alteration and equipment amount 
to seven million dollars. A report now pending before the Board of Education calls 
for about six million more, which the Board of Estimate stands ready to appropriate. 
The city therefore is practically committed to an investment of thirteen million dol- 
lars for the purpose of financing the duplicate school. The total number of schools 



294 

involved in present plans is 78; the total number of children is 185,000. The city is 
also committed through its Mayor, Board of Estimate and Board of Education to the 
duplicate school as a definite policy for future school construction and organization. 

In providing school accommodations heretofore, localities were considered as iso- 
lated cases. When the time came to prepare a building program for a contemplated 
appropriation there might be a demand for a score of new buildings. Each of these 
propositions was supported by local school boards, associations of taxpayers and 
prominent individuals, without reference to neighboring conditions or the needs of the 
city as a whole. Usually the people who made the most noise got the money. 

Since Mr. Wirt came to town the district is the unit of school construction. This 
change has revealed some remarkable anomalies. There is one district, for example, 
that demanded a new school. But a survey of the entire district showed that by the 
use of the duplicate plan four old buildings no longer fit for use might be abandoned 
and sold, while all the children could be comfortably housed in the remaining build- 
ings. It is needless to say that the new school will not be built. 

4. The Bronx Experiment — 

The balance of this discussion will be devoted exclusively to the duplicate schools 
in the 25th and 26th Districts in The Bronx, of which I have supervision. The schools 
whose reorganization is already authorized are fourteen in number, with a registration 
of 40,000, but only eleven are at present operating under the duplicate plan. The reg- 
ister of these is 30,000. 

While the reorganization of my first school was in progress a public meeting 
was called at the Bronx House to start an agitation for the establishment of two 
vocational schools in The Bronx, one for boys and one for girls. Various speakers 
presented arguments in favor of such schools, calling attention to the fact that The 
Bronx was the only borough without this type of education. At last Mr. Wirt's turn 
came. He said nothing about vocational training as such and not a word about our 
proposed trade schools. He merely described a Gary school. When he had finished 
the audience unanimously agreed that the cheapest and best way to secure elementary 
vocational training for Bronx children would be to introduce the Gary system. If the 
Board of Education spent a million dollars to build two trade schools, some fifteen 
hundred children would secure training in a few selected industries. The rest of the 
hundred thousand children would receive no benefit whatever. By the reorganization 
of fourteen schools in my district forty thousand children would be aftected. 

The following table of special activities shows to what extent the enrichment 
of the course of study has already been accomplished in the eleven schools now 
operating under the duplicate program : 

Table 1 — Special Activities. 



Schools. 



Subjects. 



28 42 44 45 SO 53 54 55 



Auditorium x 

Drawing x 

Nature study x 

Sewing x 

Music x 

Play and phys. tr. . . x 

Science x 



Subjects. 



295 



Schools. 



28 42 44 45 50 53 54 



Domestic science... 

Library 

Manual training .... 

Commercial 

Printing 

Millinery 

Dressmaking 

Woodworking 

Sheet metal 

Trade drawing 

Trade drawing 

Carpenter shop 

Steam and gas fit- 
ting 

Machine shop 

Pottery 

Bookbinding 

Spanish 

German 

French 

Cabinet shop 

Farming 

Biology 

Pattern making and 
cabinet 

Metal work 

Home making 



libraries — 



In terms of physical equipment this means that we have: 

1. Forty-one special activities — including 33 industrial shops and 
that we never before had in any school. 

2. An increase of drawing and music studios from 11 to 22. 

3. An increase of sewing rooms from 1 to 11. 

4. An increase of nature-study laboratories from to 11. 

5. An increase of domestic .science rooms from 7 to 9. 

6. An increase of gymnasiums from 6 to 11. 

7. An increase of manual training shops from 7 to 8. 

8. An increase of science laboratories from 6 to 11. 

9. A total increase of shops, studios and laboratories from 40 to 125, or 212 
per cent. 

Between the' sexes the new activities are distributed as follows : 
only; 27 are for girls only; 77 are for both boys and girls. 



21 are for boys 



296 

In terms of pupil activities the increase of facilities is shown in the following 
table : 

Tabic II — Showing the Number of Children Receiving Instruction Before and After 

Reorganization. 



Subjects. 



Before. After. 



Auditorium 

Nature study 

Play 

Science 

Domestic science 

Library 

Manual training 

Commercial 

Printing- 

Millinery 

1 dressmaking 

Woodworking 

Sheet metal 

Trade drawing 

Carpenter shop 

Steam and gas fitting 

Machine shop 

Pottery 

Bookbinding 

Spanish 

German 

French 

Cabinet shop 

Farming 

Biology 

n making 

Metal work 

1 [ome making 



5,000 


25,000 


25,000 


30,000 


15,000 


28,000 


2,500 


8,400 


2,400 


5,100 




9,500 


2,200 


3,000 




3,300 




500 




1,000 




8,000 




800 




900 




1,500 




150 




300 




160 




200 




800 




1,400 


800 


U.250 




100 


200 


800 




200 




600 




500 




500 




200 


53,100 


124,960 



Per cent, increase, 135.7. 

Classifying the special activities into industrial and miscellaneous, we see by the 

following tallies in still another form what the duplicate school has done for Bronx 
children : 

Table III — Showing the Number of Children Reeciving Industrial Experience Who 
lhul No Such Opportunity Before Reorganization. 

Industries for girls only 4,700 

Industries for boys only ! 6,410 

Industries for both boys and girls 4,800 

Total 15,910 



297 

Table IV — Showing Miscellaneous Subjects to Which Children Receive Instruction 
Not Given to Them Before Reorganization. 

Library Work 9,500 

Foreign Languages 1,950 

Science : 11,500 

Auditorium 20,000 

Total 42,950 

Here is a complete demonstration of the wisdom of the Bronx House meeting in 
dropping the agitation for trade schools. 

But even these figures do not tell the whole story. For instance, the 5,000 children 
who formerly had auditorium exercises had only fifteen minutes a day of such work, 
but the 25,000 who now go to the auditorium have an entire period (forty or fifty 
minutes) each day. Science work formerly was limited to boys of the seventh and 
eighth years ; now both boys and girls receive such instruction from the fifth year up. 
Domestic science and manual training were given only to children of the seventh 
and eighth grades (in a few cases to sixth year children) ; now children from the 
fifth year up receive such instruction. The 15,000 children who formerly played in 
school went to the yard for fifteen or twenty minutes a day, in charge of class 
teachers ; the 28,000 who now play have an entire period and are in charge of 
specialists in play and physical training (which will come later) and supporting the 
duplicate school. A million dollars invested in trade schools would have given indus- 
trial experience to fifteen hundred children; but seven hundred and fifty thousand 
invested in duplicate schools is already giving such experience to sixteen thousand 
children. And in addition to this it is giving library training to ninety-five hundred, 
foreign languages to nineteen hundred, science teaching in laboratories to eleven 
thousand five hundred, and auditorium exercises to twenty thousand. And three 
schools included in the original appropriation, with a register of more than ten 
thousand, each with a swimming-pool, gymnasium, auditorium, and a number of indus- 
trial shops, have still to be reorganized. 

As a fitting conclusion to this brief record of accomplishment, I venture to quote 
an editorial from the New York Globe, printed in June, 1915, the day after the Board 
of Education had authorized the Bronx experiment : 

By unanimously voting * * * to apply the Gary system to twelve schools in 
the Bronx, the Board of Education has launched the biggest experiment in popular 
education since the experiment of popular education itself was launched. What is 
proposed is epochal and points in the direction of a complete revolution in common 
school education. 

Thoughtful educators have long recognized that a fundamental change in the 
common school system is needed: Existing methods are out of joint with the times. 
Formerly, when literacy opened doors to opportunity, the boy or girl of common 
school education had an advantage. Common school education was vocational as 
well as cultural, but with universal education a new condition was created. The 
diffusion of education lessened, almost squeezed into nothing, the utilitarian elements. 
The problem is not to get the cultural element out of the common schools, but to 
get the utilitarian element back into them. 

In essence this is what the Gary system has in view. It does not minimize the 
importance of the old curriculum, but adds to it. It is the present school plus some- 
thing more. It seeks to bring the public school up to date, to recognize the fact that 
literacy is no longer enough, that training must go further. 

In the making of the experiment doubtless many mistakes will be made. Its 
administration will be with teachers set in their views. Many of them will fight it. 
It will run counter to the prejudices of many parents. Thus it will have a hard time. 



298 

But the idea is a big one — bigger than is now realized. It seems sound. It has 
the support of the members of the teaching corps least affected with hardening of 
the mental arteries. It appeals to the sympathies of all who have social imagination. 
As such it is entitled to something more than a fair chance, and the public could be 
prepared to disregard a large part of the opposition that will necessarily arise — an 
opposition bottomed on narrowness and a hostility to the unfamiliar. 

JOSEPH S. TAYLOR, District Superintendent of Schools, New York City. 

Girls High. 

i * \ Boys 

Main. Annex. High. 

1. Enrollment of pupils 2,616 954 3,525 

2. Seating capacity 1,916 604 2,700 

3. Excess 700 350 825 

4. Average capacity of classrooms 33 . . 35 

5. Largest number to classroms 45 . . 38 

6. Percentage of pupils out at the end of full year . . 40% . . 37% 

7. Arrangement for the number of pupils in seating capacity — Double session; 2062 

attend from 8.20 to 1.30; 1,463, 1.30 p. m. to 3.30 p. m. 

8. Extra Teacher, on account of enrollment being in 

excess of seating capacity 30 or more 35 or more 

1. Enrollment: Richmond Hill High, 775; Annex, 250; Annex, 250. 

2. Capacity: Richmond Hill High, 712; Annex, 318; Annex, 248. 

3. Excuse, Richmond Hill High, 63 ; Annex, 2. 

4. Average capacity of classroom: Richmond Hill High, 40. 

5. Largest number in class room: 50 per cent. 

7. Arrangement for excuse pupils : Two in seats or extra chair, no desks. 

8. Extra teacher : Girls' High, 33. 



Commercial High. 



Erasmus. 



Main. Annex. Annex. Annex. 



1. Enrollment of pupils 3,353 2,405 350 770 3,400 

2. Seating capacity 2,834 2,305 350 350 3,400 

3. Excess 519 

4. Average capacity of classrooms 34 .. 35 .. 33 

5. Largest number to classrooms. 52 .. 40 .. 40 

6. Percentage of pupils out at the 

end of full year 40% .. 25% .. 25% 



7. Arrangement for the number of pupils in seating capacity — Two annexes on double 

session (1,612), pupils overcrowding in classes and double term in one annex. 

8. Extra Teacher, on account of enrollment being in excess of seating capacity — 

20 in Commercial High; 35 or more in Erasmus High. 

1. Enrollment: Jamaica High, 1,095. 

2. Seating capacity: Jamaica High, 1,150. 

4. Capacity of class room: Jamaica High, 35. 

105 pupils attend who are from the Cypress and Brownsville districts. 
We need a commercial High School part for boys and another part for girls. 
Total excess of enrollment over seating capacity, 2,979, including Richmond Hill ; 
seating capacity of annexes, 2,620, including Richmond Hill: total. 5,599. 



299 

Annexes and excess of enrollment necessitates about 183 extra teachers. 

Total enrollment in annexes 4,186 

Total seating capacity of main buildings 12,575 

If Gary system will double the seating capacity 25,150 

Total enrollment of the schools 18,648 

Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Welfare Committee — In answer to the invita- 
tion to this meeting which you sent me I will speak in the interest of Parents and 
Neighbors Association of P. S. 12, now known as Fort Greene School. It is in the 27th 
School district, right inside in the Brooklyn Navy Yard and Wallabout Market. 
Mrs. CHARLES MILLER, 123 Carlton Ave., Brooklyn, N. Y., Feb. 26, 1917. 
Honorable Lewis H. Pounds, Borough President of Brooklyn : 

Dear Sir — The Ladies Branch of the Ways and Means Committee of the Parents 
and Neighbors Association of P. S. 12, now known as Fort Greene School. I am 
asking for your help in behalf of the urgent needs of our school. In the past 5 
or 6 years no less than six apartment houses have been built in our neighborhood. 
We know of two sites that have been bought for apartments and that real estate 
agents have been inquiring about other properties. Every time an apartment house 
is built it increases the neighborhood at least eight families. Where there was one or 
two houses with two or four families, there comes one apartment with eight or 
sixteen families. Old houses are being remodeled to hold two and four families. 
This is increasing the population so rapidly that P. S. 12 is being crowded and the 
part-time classes are growing fast. P. S. 12 is an old building with the exception 
of a few minor improvements ; the buildings can accommodate no more now than 
it did forty years ago ; P. S. 12 lies in the center of a bee hive population and as 
long as the Wallabout Market and the Brooklyn Navy Yard exist No. 12 will be 
badly needed. The school is not an up to date one. Following are some of the 
conditions existing now : We have a total register of 1,454, pupils 389, about 25 per 
cent, are on double session. There are 35 classes in this small school, 10 classes, 
about 30 per cent., are on double sessions. This means that rooms do not get a 
chance to air before another class is in the room. These children are assembled in 
the basement where it is often damp and unhealthy, causing illness and endangering 
the health of the child. They are compelled to use the basement as a class room. 
We have no auditorium, Domestic Science, Kindergarten, Gymnasium. Teacher 
Room nor Nurses Room. In case of sickness or distress where immediate attention 
is necessary there is no suitable place where a sick child or teacher can be cared for, 
until they hay be removed to their homes. They must lie in the class room ex- 
posed to the eyes of everybody. Last, but by no means least, there are no play- 
grounds, which compels the children to play in the street, which is extremely danger- 
ous on account of the auto cars and trucks. This is what we want you to give us 
first : We want 75 foot front on the north aside of the school and 50 foot front on the 
south side of the school. This will prevent the building of apartments close to the 
school, shutting out light and air .which a school must have. The school plot is 75 
feet by 100 feet and with the new ground we would have a plot of 200 feet on 
Adelphi straight running straight through to Clermont avenue, making it 200 feet deep. 
Gentlemen, we want this new site and the school needs it badly; now is the time to 
buy while property is cheap and while the property is owned by private people; for 
if 'a syndicate gets hold of it they will try and make the City pay more. We feel 
sure $60,000 will buy the property we want. Gentlemen, now is the time to act. Set 
aside this money for the new site. We know we can get the property for this amount 
now but if you put it off some distance persons may give us trouble later. We have 
a just cause; Fort Greene School is the educating institution of the children of 90 
per cent, of the mechanics and engineering forces of the Brooklyn Navy Yard, which 
is one of the strong arms of the country. Surely these young rising mechanics and 



30U 

prospective wives of mechanics should receive the best education the City of New 
York can give. Fort Greene School has done wonderful work during its existence, 
its staff of teachers from the Principal down are an honor and a credit to Brooklyn. 
Its record speaks for itself. This beehive of citizens surrounding Fort Greene School 
stand shoulder to shoulder and look to you gentlemen to put this through for us. 

I hope I have made the desired impression and when you leave this building today 
every boy and girl you see will make you think of the call of the mechanics and 
engineers in behalf of their children just as you may and will call upon them to 
build and help protect your homes and families. I thank you, gentlemen, in behalf 
of the parents and neighbors for this opportunity in presenting to you the urgent 
needs of P. S. No. 12. 

Mr. Harry Robitzek, Chairman of the Committee on General Welfare, Board of 
Aldermen : 

Dear Sir — We, the undersigned teachers of P. S. No. 65, Brooklyn, beg to inform 
you that Miss Mary E. Duncan, Principal of said school, has never in assembly nor 
in our individual class rooms, broached the subject of religion to the children. Sec- 
ondly, we wish to state that the only signs in the building are placed on class-room 
doors. They read thusly : "Visitors are not permitted to interview teachers on the 
school premises unless they first secure written permission from the principal. These 
signs are authorized and paid for by the Department of Education. 

We present this to you as a means of refuting the charges published in the 
Brooklyn Daily Eagle of Sunday, February 25th, 1917. Very sincerely, 

MARTHA J. B1RKETT, BLANCHE M. DOYLE, CHRISTINA V. SHULTZ, 
ADELAIDE V. POHL, EVE BROWN, MARY E. McGUIRK, MARIANA D. 

II W'COCK, ELIZABETH McDONALD, CAROLINE A. KIDDER, ADA C. ASH, 
CHARLOTTE J. STRANG, MARJORIE PARKER, MARTHA MARKS, SUSAN 
M. MOTZ. MADELEINE M. SEPP. ELSIE M. WILSON, EMILY SMITH, MAG- 
DALENA VESSIE, ETHEL BELLOWS. March 8, 1917. 

242 Monroe St., Brooklyn, N. Y., March 8, 1917. 
My dear Mr. Robitzek: 

I am sending a statement to you from the teachers of Public School No. 65. 

Perhaps a few lines will explain it. For the past six months or more Miss 
Duncan has been annoyed by a parent who expects to plead her case before you to- 
morrow. This woman has stated her complaints to several newspapers. So far 
everyone is a misrepresentation of truth. We feel that the time has come for us to 
come forth and publicly deny these charges. We have but twenty teachers in our 
school and we are of several denominations. However, we intend to declare our- 
selves when the interests of Miss Duncan are at stake. 

Would you favor us by an earnest perusal of this statement. Also may we ask 
that the other Aldermen serving on the Committee on General Welfare be acquainted 
with it. 

Thanking you for any consideration you may give this paper, I remain, 

Very sincerely. (Miss) BLANCHE M. DOYLE. 

Brooklyn, N. Y., Feb. 23, 1917. 
Mr. Harry Robitzek : 

Dear Sir — Hearing of a meeting on March 2nd before the Public Welfare Board 
I ask if any one having a complaint to make can be present, and if so must one sub- 
mit the complaint in meeting. 

The complaint I have reference to was entered June 5th against Principal of 
P. S. 65, Brooklyn, and after many visits to the Board finally got a hearing, only to 



301 

receive word later that since months had passed the Board was unable to do any- 
thing and conditions are such it should receive an investigation. 
Thanking you for a reply. Respt., 

Mrs. JEANNETTE M. MILLER, 106 Logan St., Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Department of Education, Office of the Principal of Public School No. 89, 
Borough of Brooklyn, April 5, 1917. 

Hon. Harry Robitzek, Chairman, Committee on Public Welfare, City Hall, New 
York City: 

My Dear Mr. Robitzek — I want your kind permission to speak at your hearing 
in the Supreme Court Building in Brooklyn to-night ; also Mrs. K. A. Mackenzie, 
the acting president of the parents' organization of P. S. No. 89, craves your per- 
mission to file with you the report of that organization made to inform the public 
on the situation in the school district in which they are concerned. Mrs. Mackenzie 
is not used to public speaking, so I beg your indulgence for her. 

Very truly yours, (Mrs.) ALICE E. B. RITTER, Principal. 

Brooklyn Schools Which Will Be Reorganized Before June 30, 1917 — Special 
Activities Other than Those in Classrooms, Auditorium and Playground. 



Public Schools. 

SO (1) 

G. 143 

110 

126 

132 

125 

ISO (1) 

1S6 (2) 

165 (1) 

175 (1) 

72 

149 

173 (1) 

174 (1) 

(8) 



Gym- Drawing Music Library 
nasium. Room. Room. & Study. 



2 2 


1 


2 


1 2 


1 


1 


1 2 


1 


1 


1 2 


1 


1 


1 2 


1 


1 


1 1 


1 




1 2 


1 


2 


2 3 


1 


2 


1 1 


1 


1 


1 2 


1 


1 




1 


1 


1 2 


1 


2 


1 2 


1 


2 


2 1 


2 


1 



26 



13 



19 



Ele. Woodwk.— (1) 1, (1) 1, (1) 1, 1, (1) 1, (1) 1, (1) 1, 1, (1) 1, (1) 1. 
1, 1, (8) 12. 

Plumbing— (1) 1, 1, (1) 1, 1. 

Elec. Wir.— (1) 1, 2; (2) 1, 2; (\) 1, (1) 2; (1) 1, (1) 2; 1, 1 ; 1, 1 ; 1, 2; (1) 
1, (1) 2; (1) 1, (2) 3; (1) 1, (1) 1; 1, 1; (1) 1, 1; (1) 1, 1; 1, (1) 1; 1, 1; 
(10) 14, (8) 23:' 

Kit. H— 1, 1; 1, 1; 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 14. 

S. — Comm., 1, 1, 1, 1. 

Pr.— 1, 1, 1, 1. 

Sw. Dr. — Nov., 3. 

Mil.— Sheet metal, 1, 1. 

Note — Figures in parenthesis denote the number of special activities in these 
schools before the reorganization on the duplicate school plan. 



302 

To date, $5,997,937.03 have been appropriated for organizing schools on the 
duplicate school plan in New York City. Of this total amount, $3,594,867.43 have 
been appropriated for Brooklyn schools. Of this amount for Brooklyn, $2,173,896 
are for four new buildings. 

17 South Bond St., Mount Vernon, N. Y., April 19, 1917. 

Mr. Harry Robitzek, Chairman, Committee on General Welfare, Board of Alder- 
men, City of New York: 

Gentlemen — We submit to you the programme of the Gary moving pictures and 
their statement, as we saw them at the McKinley Square last week. The Mothers' 
Council of P. S. of C. N. Y. will report on the items of special interest at a later 
date if you so desire. One item we wish to call your attention to is that the con- 
ditions are made between for the teachers by the Gary plan, but we find, with one 
exception, in schools there are no more teachers employed extra for the immense 
increase in numbers in attendance. Who does this work? Are the children bene- 
fited by this plan? In some cases there are over 50 children to one teacher, about 
equal number of boys and girls, with different subjects to be taught at the same time, 
viz., sewing and reading. 

Respectfully submitted, THE MOTHERS' COUNCIL, of P. S. of C. N. Y., 
Mrs. P. F. Frost, President. 

Synopsis. 
Reel 1 — Creating a Child World for City Children. 

Playgrounds used by children every hour of the day. In summer, tennis, base- 
ball, wading pool; in winter, skating and coasting; when it rains, games in indoor 
playgrounds and gymnasiums. Whole family (Mary, age five, included), learn to 
swim in day and evening schools. Young life savers. Gary boys and girls use for 
play, hours other children waste loafing on street and getting into trouble. Audito- 
riums busy six hours a day. Wrestling on auditorium stage better than street fights. 
Motion pictures and concerts. Play time is not taken from study, but from street 
time. 

Children wholesomely busy working, studying and playing all day long, because 
playgrounds, auditoriums, libraries and child welfare agencies throughout every 
day supplement the home and round out a child world. 

Reel 2 — Learning by Doing. 
Children in Gary schools learn by doing things with heart, head and hand. One 
grade to teacher and one school seat cannot give a child a school world full of life. 
School grounds a real botany laboratory. Music and drawing in special studios. 
Science learned in actual lboratories. Children test their class room ventilation. 
Plant and harvest. Take pets to classes for formal lessons. Children grow through 
work as well as study. Only special rooms and special teacher can make these 
special subjects real and instructive to children. 

Reel 3 — Substitutes for Street and Alley. 
Longer school day gives time for work and play. Same time for study; less 
for street, with its physical and moral dangers. Making pottery. Shoeing horses 
gives training of good old days on the farm. Repairing automobiles. Distributing 
supplies for school store. Printing for school. Mending own shoes. Working 
with school engineer. Making all school plumbing repairs. Sewing (boys, too). 
Little children play in sandpits; four years later they find more fun molding in a 
real foundry, where work is productive. Play impulse transformed into work im- 
pulse 



• 303 

Work-study-and-play schools use for real education the time usually misspent 
on street. Gary child's first-hand experiences with real life in school world fit him 
for his place in adult world later on. 

Reel 4 — Balanced Load Principle of the Gary Plan. 

Why should all children do the same thing at the same time in the same place 
in the same way? Under the Gary plan, while Jack is studying in a classroom, 
Mary and Jimmie are working and playing in shops and play grounds. When Jack 
has' finished his arithmetic and English, he goes to the shops and playgrounds and 
Mary and Jimmie go to their classrooms. For all children same amount of time for 
3'R's as in usual school. But, also, time for healthy work and play which keeps 
Jack from being a dull boy. Attention given to each child's needs and abilities. 
Jack falls behind in arithmetic; given extra time for it without staying after school; 
doesn't lose his grade. The school fits the child, not the child the school. No 
lockstep in these schools. 

Richer Opportunities for Children — No increase in cost to taxpayer, better con- 
ditions for teachers. 

In New York City — How New York City is Creating a Child World for City 

Children. 

Time formerly spent on the street, children in schools on the Gary plan now 
spend in wholesome play and work in school. Playgrounds now used every hour 
of six-hour school day. Formerly used only for ten minute recess and public 
playgrounds only after 3 p. m. 

Auditorium, which creates in children desire for good music, literature and 
plays, and interest in history, geography and science, now used six hours a day. 
Formerly fifteen minutes a day. If parents so desire, children may be excused from 
play or auditorium to take private music lessons, or use other child welfare agencies. 
Play and auditorium time taken from street, not from study time. 

Children are kept busy working, studying and playing in a good environment 
all day long, because public agencies co-operate to make the city a fit place for rear- 
ing children. 

New York Children Learn by Doing — No longer one grade teacher and one 
school seat all day long. All schools on Gary plan have special music and drawing 
studios, nature study rooms, science laboratories and special teacher for these sub- 
jects. Every child uses them forty or fifty minutes every school day. Formerly no 
special rooms or specified time for these subjects, and no science for children below 
the seventh grade, and then only for boys. School life now enriched by a great 
variety of first-hand experiences which give opportunity and time to discover special 
bent; increases chances of success in later life. 

Substitutes for Streets and Gangs — Schools on Gary plan lengthen day to six 
hours (teaching time for teacher, five hours). Same time for study; less time for 
education in wrong direction on city streets ; more time for education in right direc- 
tion in shops and laboratories under wholesome supervision. 

How the Gary Plan Operates in New York City— To date, $5,997,937 have been 
appropriated by -'the New York City to organize schools on the Gary plan. Of this 
amount, $1,261,000 is for sites; $3,948,821 is for new buildings and additions, and 
$788,116.03 is for alterations and equipment for existing buildings. Already four- 
teen schools are nearly ready. The increased accommodations and enriched opportuni- 
ties for children in these schools are the result of New York City's adopting the princi- 
ple of the Gary School System, on the Balanced Load Plan — that is, one-half the num- 
ber of children to study in classrooms while the other one-half are working and 
playing in shops and playgrounds and auditoriums. 



304 

For information about the Bronx Schools reorganized on the Gary plan, see 

page 4. 

The Gary Plan in The Bronx. 

In March. 1915, there were 36,000 children in twelve schools in Districts 25 and 
26, Bronx, and 25,000 school seats. That means there were 10,000 children without 
school seats. 

In July, 1915, the work of reconstruction began. 

By January, 1917, eleven schools in The Bronx were operating on the new plan. 

Results of the Gary Plan in The Bronx. 

All children in these schools have been taken off part time. 

All children in these schools above the fourth grade have a six-hour school day ; 
below the fourth grade a five and six-hour school day. 

Every child in these schools has a school seat in which to study the 3 R's for 
the same amount of time as in regular schools. 

In addition, there is a total increase of shops, studios and laboratories from 40 
to 125. or 212 per cent. 

One hundred and thirty-five per cent, more children received instruction in 
the following subjects after reorganization on the Gary Plan: 



Subjects. 



Before After 

Adoption of Adoption of 
Gary Plan. Gary Plan. 



Auditorium . 
Mature study 
Play 



Science 

I lomestic Science 

Library 

Manual training 

Commercial 

Printing 

Millinery 

Wood working 

Sheet metal 

Trade drawing 

Carpenter shop 

Steam and gas fitting 

Machine shop 

Pottery 

Bookbinding 

Spanish 

German 

French 

Cabinet shop 

Farming 

Biology 

Pattern making 

Metal work 

Home making 



5.000 


25.000 


25,000 


30,000 


15,000 


28.000 


2,500 


8,400 


2,400 


5,100 




9,500 


2,200 


3,000 




8,300 




500 




800 




800 




900 




1,500 




150 




300 




160 




800 




800 




1,400 


800 


1.250 




100 


200 


800 




200 




600 




500 




500 




200 



Total. 



53,100 



123,960 



305 

Address of Judge Edward A. Richards, President of High School Committee of One 
Hundred for East New York and Brownsville . Before Committee on General 
Welfare, Board of Aldermen, at the Irving High School, Wednesday Evening, May 
16, 1917. 
Gentlemen of the Committee: 

S'ince your hearing at Public School No. 84 on April 26, 1917, there has been 
brought to ray attention, as President of the High School Committee of One Hun- 
dred for East New York and Brownsville, a matter which not only is of interest to 
that Committee but vitally affects the people of the Bushwick and Ridgewood Sec- 
tions where you are now meeting. I am, therefore, taking the liberty of addressing 
you briefly on the subject. 

If a way can be found to provide money for the erection of a high school on the 
Dumont and Pennsylvania Avenue site, the present congregation and overcrowding 
in the Bushwick High School can be relieved. This certainly should be done in all 
fairness to the children of the Bushwick and Ridgewood sections. 

On July 17, 1911, the Board of Education procured an appropriatio nof $715,000 
for a supply depository building in New York, but the money has never been expended. 

On March 28, 1917, the Committee on Buildings and Sites of the Board of Edu- 
cation requested the Commissioners of the Sinking Fund to take such steps as may 
be necessary to have the Hallenbeck Building on the New York County Court House 
site turned over to the Department of Education for the use of the Bureau of Sup- 
plies. If this is done, the new Supply Depository Building will not be necessary. 
That Committee also asked the Board of Aldermen and the Board of Estimate and 
Apportionment to authorize the issuance of special revenue bonds in the sum of 
$35,000 to make the Hallenbeck Building suitable as a supply depository. 

In the event of favorable action on these requests, the Board of Education agreed 
to ask a rescission of the appropriation of $715,000 and, in lieu thereof, to use that 
amount for the construction and equipment of new school buildings. 

In conference with the Chairman of the Committee on Education of the Board of 
Estimate and Apportionment, I was informed that that Committee and the Board 
of Estimate recognized the urgent need of a high school for East New York and 
Brownsville, and would probably look with favour upon a request by the Board of 
Education that this amount of $715,000 be used for that purpose, provided the Hallen- 
beck Building could be secured. 

If your Committee is convinced, as I think they must be, that a high school on the 
Dumont and Pennsylvania Avenue sites should be erected without further delay, I 
hope your Committee will be willing to advocate the use of this $715,000 for that 
purpose 

As I pointed out in my former address to you, the Irving High School, which was 
built primarily for the use of the people of the Bushwick and Ridgewood sections, 
is now so much overcrowded that there are on the register '3,691 students, whereas 
there is seating capacity for only 2,494. A great many of these students come from 
the East New York and Brownsville sections. Each year these districts are graduat- 
ing approximately 2,900 High School pupils and the majority of them select the. 
Bushwick High School because it is the most modern and nearest to their residences. 
That is the reason 1 the children of the Bushwick section are crowded out of their own 
school and greatly inconvenienced. 

If the East New York and Brownsville High School was promptly erected, there 
would be plenty of room for the Bushwick children in their own high school. I 
know that I voice the sentiment of the people of the Bushwick and Ridgewood Dis- 
tricts when I say that it is their desire to have the Irving High School for their own 
use, and that they join with us in advocating the immediate erection of a High 
School Building for the children of the East New York and Brownsville Districts. 



306 

We feel certain that your recommendation to the Board of Education and to the 
Board of Estimate and Apportionment will have great weight in this regard. 

Respectfully submitted, EDWARD A. RICHARDS, President. 

Brooklyn, May 16, 1917. 
To the Committee on General Welfare of the Board of Education: 

I regret very much that I will be unable to be present at the hearing you have 
so kindly granted on the residents of the Bushwick-Ridgewood section relative to 
better educational facilities in Greater New York. Briefly I desire to give my views. 

\\ hat we need to-day in our elementary and high schools and colleges is more 
scientific and practical education rather than literary and culturist education. Some 
of our high schools and colleges in other states are showing good common sense in 
letting the students engage in useful occupations and crediting them with their work 
the same as though they had remained at their studies. If we could adopt the same 
principle, where feasible, it would mean much for more scientific and practical educa- 
tion for our young people. While thousands have wasted valuable time on ornamental 
lion, many who have attended Pratt's, Cooper Iistitute and other similar in- 
stitutions, with keener foresight and greater desire to be useful members of 

ty, have educated themselves in chemical, agricultural, vocational, and along 
other practical lines. These young people, especially at the present time, are real 
heroes, and are valuable assets to our country in the present crisis. It is the prac- 
tical student, or educator, who comes to the rescue when anything is wanted. 

Many people believe that Germany has the best trained body of scientific men in 
the world. It is this rather than the military superiority which has enabled her up to 
the present time against great odds to put up such a wonderful fight. Her sub- 
tnaincs have been the wonder of the world, and have been a great factor in the 

Id's greatest war. We depend upon Germany for potash, dyes and many scientific 
instruments. 

boj or '-'irl who attends our schools should have the opportunity for a 
complete practical education which will give them a better chance in the world to earn 
a good living and be a help to our country. More attention should be given to manual 
training and domestic science; also a number of teachers of agriculture should be em- 
td sent, as occasion requires, to the different schools in order that pupils 
may be taught how to cultivate the soil and raise vegetables. 

Our schools should be freed from politics. I favor at this time a high school 
in the Brownsville section, as it would help to relieve congestion in the Bushwick High 
Scl 1 in the Brownsville section, as it would help to relieve congestion in the Bush- 
wick High School, and enable many of those living in close proximity to our own 
school, an opportunity to attend the Bushwick High School. We put up a good fight 
to secure the Bushwick High School, and it is not fair that many of our boys and 
girls should be compelled to attend other high schools in remote sections of our 
city. 

I know that I voice the sentiments of the residents of our section when I state 
that we .ill appreciate your great kindness in giving us an opportunity to voice our 
views. Respectfully, 

JARED J. CHAMBERS, President, 28th Ward Protecctive Association. 

Department of Education, Office of the Principal of Public School, Woodhaven, 
Borough of Queens, May 3, 1917. 

To the Secretary Welfare Committee, Board of Aldermen, City of New York, in 
Session at P. S. 39, Far Rockaway : 

Dear Secretan — I enclose a statement relative to Speech Improvement of 
Stammering, Lisping and Stuttering Children in the Borough of Queens. Aldermen 



307 

Coetz asked me to use his name, requesting that this statement be read and that it 
receive the attention its importance merits. Will you please read my letter and the 
document relative to these unfortunate children to your worthy Committee? Yours 
very truly, PYRUS E. SMITH, Principal P. S. No. 58, Woodhaven, N. Y. 

Results of the investigation of signatures to the Anti-Gary petition compiled by 
certain parents having children in P. S. 89, Brooklyn, May, 1916. 

1,126 Families in P. S. 89, Brooklyn. 

There were 1,126 families having children in P. S. 89, Brooklyn, at the time the 
Anti-Gary petition was signed. 

Of these 1,126 families, 823, or 72 per cent., registered for or against the plan. 
This number comprises 416 who signed the statement of the Parents' Organization 
in favor of the plan and 407 of the parents who signed the Anti-Gary petition. 
There were S03 names on the Anti-Gary petition, but 96 later signed the statement of 
the Parents' Organization in favor of the plan and therefore appear on both lists. 

S03 Names on Anti-Gary Petition, of Which 490 Were Bona Fide. 

In order to ascertain what changes, if any, each of the parents who had signed 
the Anti-Gary petition would like to have made for her child, the homes of all 
but three of the 503 who signed the petition were visited. The three not visited 
included Mrs. Arnold and two mothers quarantined or ill. 

Of the 503 Anti-Gary petitioners, it was found that 10 never had children in 
P. S. 89, and three names were duplicates, leaving 490 bona fide names, of whom, as 
stated above, 98 had later signed the statement of the Parents' Organization in 
favor of the plan. 

Of the 480 bona fide names on the petition, 31 were not at home when visited, 
six had moved away, and three were not visited as stated above, leaving 450 
families for which records were obtained. 

43 Families Questioned Validity of Signatures. 

Of these 450 families 43 questioned the validity of the signatures. Of this num- 
ber : 9 denied signing the Anti-Gary petition ; 13 said they did not sign, but that a 
child or other member of the family must have signed ; IS said they signed not 
knowing what the petition was about; and 3 said the petitioners must have signed 
their names. 

The attitude of these 450 families, plus Mrs. Arnold, who is recorded as 
opposing the plan completely, was found to be as follows : 

Only 25 Families Wanted to Go Back to the Old System. 

Only 25 families wanted to go back to the old system; 11 had their children 
transferred, while 133 stated that they had no objection to the plan, and 282 
objected merely to particular features of the plan. 

Of these 283 who objected to particular features of the plan, 183 objected for one 
reason, 78 for two reasons, 17 for three reasons and five for four reasons. 

The specific reasons for objecting to the plan given by these 282 families may 
be briefly summarized as follows : 

Forty said they would object "if academic work suffers;" 16 objected to the 
children carrying books and clothes; 7 objected to too much home work; 28 objetced 
to the so-called religious feature; 20 objected to the children changing classes; 244 
objected to the play period for one reason or another; 10 objected to the audi- 
torium ; and 87 to the lunch hour or the hour beginning or ending school. 

Analysis of Objections Show They Can Be Easily Adjusted. 
A further analysis of these reasons reveals that in a few instances the parents 
were criticizing conditions for which the Gary plan was not responsible, while in others 



308 

they were criticizing features readily adjustible because of the flexibility of the Gary 
program in adapting the work of the school to the needs of the individual child. 
Taken in the order enumerated, the analysis of these reasons reveals the following 
facts : 

(1) The 40 parents who stated that they would oppose the Gary plan "if the 
academic work suffers" said they had no evidences that it did suffer, but they had 
heard that it might suffer. 

(2) The carrying of books and clothes is due to the temporary lack of locker 
equipment which has nothing to do with the Gary plan. 

(3) As the academic teachers have the same amount of time for academic work 
and the same children as they had before the reorganization, the amount of home 
work is in no way effected by the Gary plan. 

(4) Those parents who objected to the plan "in case religion is put into the 
schools" did not realize that the Gary plan never permits religion in the school, and 
that the possibility of religious instruction outside of school has not been developed 
at all in P. S. 89 because the parents passed a resolution against it. 

(5) Children do change classes under the Gary plan. This changing of classes 
is one of the essential features of the plan, since it is considered desirable for both 
the educational and physical development of children that they should not be kept in 
the same classroom all day long, but should be given the opportunity to move about 
and take the special work and play which is fitted to their individual needs. 

(6) Of the 244 families objecting to play, only 37 objected to play in general, 
while 207 objected to some particular feature of play for their individual children. 
Of these 207 families, 49 objected to children getting dirty or going to the woods, or 
indulging in what they considered rough play; 85 objected to their children playing in 
bad weather, either out of doors or in the basement: 50 objected to monitors; 36 
objected because of the delicate health of their children; 5 preferred to have their 
children at home; 3 objected to play for girls and 21 objected to the swimming pool. 

All of these objections can be met since Mr. Wirt authorized Mrs. Ritter to 
excuse children from play if parents so desire. But it is an interesting fact that of the 
244 parents who had any objection to play only 111 wanted to have their children 
excused from play. The objection of the 85 parents to having their children play in 
baj weather out of doors or in the basement will be removed without the necessity 
for excusing children when the annex, now under construction, is completed. 

(7) Of the 10 parents who objected to the auditorium, 2 wanted their children 
to stay at home ; one wanted her child to practice music during that hour ; two wanted 
their children to study instead of going to the auditorium; one wanted her child 
excused of stair climbing: while four considered the auditorium valueless. One other 
parent did not object to the auditorium but preferred to have her child out of doors. 

All these adjustments can readily be made. 

(8) Of the 87 parents who objected to the hours. 40 wanted a change made in the 
time of coming to or leaving school, and 25 wanted the lunch hour changed. 

If the parents will refer these requests to Mrs. Ritter, adjustments can be made 
in every case except two, where the parents ask for less than a five hour day for their 
children. 

51 Adjustments in Program Made Before the Investigation. 

The best proof that such adjustments can be made is the fact that even before 
the visitors from the Parents' Organization called, 51 adjustments had already been 
made ; 32 in play ; 12 in hours ; and 7 in auditorium. 

Summary. 
The most obvious conclusion from this investigation is that the objections of the 
parents are not criticisms of essential features of the plan, but a natural expression 



309 

of individual preferences in regard to the different kinds of school days and 
activities which individual parents want for their children. 

In other words, this variety of opinion on the part of parents in regard to such 
details in the time when they want their children to come to or to leave school, the 
value of auditorium or play for individual children, etc., actually prove that parents 
do want the different kinds of a school for their children which the flexibility of the 
Gary plan makes possible. 

ANNA M. MACKENZIE, Pres. Parents' Organization, P. S. 89. 

Sand Bay Improvement Association, Sand Bay, Brooklyn, N. Y., April 21, 1917. 
The Honorable Aldermanic Committee on Schools, City of New York: 

Gentlemen — The above association respectfully petitions your committee, co-joint 
with other civic organizations within this Canarsie District, to the urgent need of a 
proper building to replace the inadequate structures now used for the instruction of 
our children, in what is known as P. S. No. 115. The buildings now used have long 
since outlived their usefulness, inasmuch that they are portable 1-story structures 
(wood) devoid of proper heating apparatus and modern equipment. The seating 
capacity is so inadequate that it necessitates a journey of from one mile to one 
and a half mile in many instances for our children to walk to P. S. 114. 
This situation has in innumerable instances been the cause of severe illnesses 
to our children being compelled to walk that journey through rain, hail and snow, 
over unflagged sidewalks. This section is now daily improving, by the construc- 
tion of several homes that are greatly in demand by citizens, from the city who are 
seeking Canarsie as a healthful, residential place for themselves and families. Again 
we, the taxpayers of this district, paying, as we do the taxation as settled upon by 
the Board of Aldermen for the Borough of Brooklyn, feel that we have been for- 
gotten long enough in the matter of proper school accommodations, therefore we 
would ask your honorable Committee to unanimously report in favor of a proper 
building to be erected on the site of the present portables, at Avenue M and East 92nd 
Street, Canarsie. Yours respectfully, 

ARTHUR G. MORRIS, President. 

Parents' Association of Public School 186, New York, March 24, 1917. 
Harry Robitzek, Chairman, Committee on Public Welfare, Board of Aldermen, City 
of New York : 
Dear Sir — At a mass meeting held at the Public Library on West One Hundred 
and Forty-fifth Street during the evening of the fifteenth instant, under the auspices 
of the Parents' Association of Public School 186, which organization is a member of 
the Federation of Parents' Associations of New York City, the following motions 
were unanimous carried : 

Motion — That this meeting place itself on record as unalterably opposed to the 

Gary or Duplicate System of teaching in the public schools of the City of New York. 

Motion — That a copy of this motion be sent to the Mayor, the President o<f the 

Board of Aldermen and other city officials, as well as to the President of the Board 

of Education and all our leading newspapers. Respectfully submitted, 

HELEN L. HEMINGWAY, Secretary. 

Parents' Association of Public School 186. New York, April 12, 1917. 

Mr. John Martin, Chairman, Committee on Vocational Schools and Industrial Traifi- 

ing, Board of Education, City of New York: 

Dear Sir — The Parents' Association of Public School 186, Manhattan, on March 

17th sent you a protest against the duplicate system of teaching. Your reply of 

March 24th asked us to favor you with a detail showing the features and the plan 



310 

that provoked such strong opposition. We welcome this opportunity and at the 
executive meeting held on April 10th the following composite was formulated : 

Objections to the Gary or Duplicate System of teaching. 
I. Character : 

1. Lack of personal touch between the pupil and teacher owing to the rush and 
pressure of work and the number of different children that must be handled by the 
teacher each day. It is not the fact that the B times R — P, or that the word book 
is a common noun, or that France is bounded on the north by . It is the develop- 
ing of that mind to do well the task that is given him, to live helpfully with his 
fellows, to imbibe a broad sympathy with the great world problems and to gradually 
realize what a privilege it is to be a part of this great universe. 

2. Lack of discipline. A child with one teacher all day and many days in suc- 
cession and knowing that he is responsible to that teacher, must endeavor to do 
satisfactory definite work. Under ten teachers in one day, none of whom can claim 
his time after the period in her class, he does his work or not, as he likes. Children 
in elementary schools are too young to be entirely self-reliant. 

3. Lack of time after school hours for any development in outside interests, as 
special musical talent, because the time at the school building is a longer but with 
no period for study so all lessons must be prepared at home. 

4. Neglect of personal appearance. During the play period the child injures his 
clothes, ruffles his hair, soils his hands and face and must go directly to class without 
time to clean up. 

5. Careless habits of work are formed by this shifting hurried life. 

II. Health: 

1. Overcrowding with twice the number of children brings twice the danger 
from diseases common to youth. 

_'. Twice tlie amount of dirt and germs will be brought into the building and 
this is constantly stirred by the passing of classes from room to room. 

3. Clothing and books must be placed upon the ground during the play period 
and so become filled with dirt and germs. Clothing and books are carried about with 
the chikl all day, thus freely scattering these germs. 

•4. The building must be swept while the children are in it, for it is not possible 
to keep it livable otherwise. 

5. There is increased danger from fire with the building so full of children and 
the difficulty of holding fire drills. 

III. Academic Work: 

1. Lack of individual attention. Owing to the limited time for lessons and the 
great numbers one teacher is handling each day it is impossible for her to keep 
individual needs in mind. 

2. Lack on concentration: (a) Owing to the noise in the playground, which is 
filled all day with shouting children; (b) owing to the fact that there is no definite 
place for one child in the building — he must be constantly moving, no chance to quiet 
his mind for definite hard work — he is here a minute, there a minute. When he 
can have his own class room and his own seat and can put his things away and give 
all his attention to the work before him there is opportunity to train for definite 
results. 

3. Time is lost from each session because of the passing from room to room 
and getting all his things settled again in a new place. 

4. Mistakes are made in subject matter, for the pupil must copy so rapidly from 
the board that errors are made in the copying. 

5. Vocational work is not taught so as to promote efficiency. Jumping from 
one trade to another every twenty days develops a jack of all subjects and master 
of none. 



311 

6. The massing of three or four hundred children of different grades in the 
auditorium is simply a scheme for housing — certainly efficient teaching cannot be 
done there. They sit in seats where their feet cannot touch, on their clothing (damp 
on rainy days), and are too small to see or hear what is going on in the front of the 
room. 

III. Expenses : 

1. The cost of properly equipping trade schools such as the duplicate system is 
supposed to have would give a seat for every child in the city in a comfortable 
building where he can be grounded in the fundamentals with some hard, training 
and the foundations of character built in a quiet, refining atmosphere. 

2. There is increased cost in text books because of the wear and tear in con- 
stantly carrying them about, as well as loss during the play period. 

6. Injury to school property is greater because the constant shifting of children 
makes it impossible to fix responsibility for damage as well as that caused by twice 
the number using the building. 

Our children are our future citizens. No city or country can be great that 
neglects the education of the masses. No government can be more efficient than its 
people. Hence we claim that an economy that limits the education of its children 
is most undemocratic and short sighted. 

We therefore renew our protests and demand that these costly experiments cease 
and money be provided to furnish schools sufficient to the needs of our city. 

At the Public Meeting of this association held on April 3rd, the following motion 
was unanimously voted : 

Motion : This meeting demands from the City a seat for every child and five 
hours of instruction daily. Most respectfully submitted, 

PARENTS' ASSOCIATION OF PUBLIC SCHOOL 186, MANHATTAN. 

Department of Education, The City of New York, the Board of Superintendents, 
April 4, 1917. 
Hon. Harry Robitzek, Chairman, Welfare Committee, Board of Aldermen; 

Dear Sir — May I request you kindly to extend to me the courtesy of the floor at 
this evening's hearing before your Committee, for the purposes of presenting some 
data bearing upon the subject of your inquiry? 

Very truly yours, OSWALD SCHLOCKOW, 

The City of New York, Office of the President of the Borough of Brooklyn, 
Brooklyn, March 22, 1917. 

Hon. Harry Robitzf.k, Chairman, Committee on General Welfare, Board of Aldermen, 
City Hall: 

Dear Sir — I have your request of the 20th inst. for use of a court room for the 
purpose of a public hearing to be held Thursday, April 5th, at 8 p. m., and in answer 
beg to advise you that you may have the use of Room No. 14 in the Supreme Court 
Building on Joralemon Street, opposite Borough Hall, Brooklyn. 

Very truly yours, AMIS M. SWASEY, Superintendent. 

/ 

New York City Federation of Women's Clubs, Brooklyn, March 22nd, 1917. 

Hon. Harry Robitzek, Chairman, Social Welfare Committee, Board of Aldermen, 
City Hall, New York City: 
Dear Sir— The Committee of Child Welfare of the Federation of Women's Clubs 
having two members on the committee from each of the five boroughs, desire to at- 
tend the public hearings on educational matters, which I believe will be held by your 
Committee on Social Welfare. 



312 

The work of our committee is the social welfare of the children of this city, 
principally in the schools, and any information our committee can secure will be of 
value to the committee in its work. 

As chairman of our committee I would be pleased to have a list of the public 
meetings, so as I can arrange to have a member of our committee in attendance at 
each of the hearings, and I would be pleased if you will send an outline of the scope 
of the hearings. Very truly yours, 

Miss SUSIE G. HARKINS, Chairman of Child Welfare, 302 Hicks Street, 
Brooklyn', New York. 

Department of Education, City of New York, Brooklyn, N. Y., March 21, 1917. 
Hon. Harry Robitzek, Chairman, Welfare Committee, Board of Aldermen, Municipal 
Building. New York City: 

Dear Sir — At a meeting of this Board held on March 21, 1917, I was requested to 
transmit the following motion : 

"A motion was made, seconded and carried that the Welfare Committee of the 
Board of Aldermen be requested to hold one of its meetings in P. S. 84, in District 
39, some day to be fixed by it, and to advise this Board of the action in reference to 
this request." Respectfully, 

MARY M. DAMMANN, Secretary, Local School Board District 39. 

February 13th, 1917. 
Mr. A. E. PALMES, Secretary, Board of Education, 59th St. and Park Ave., New 
York City: 
Dear Sir — Following is a report of Local School Board No. 42, Queens, covering 
the recommendation for the purchase of sites and erection of school buildings neces- 
sary in order to provide proper school facilities for the children of this district. The 

covered by this district is connected to Manhattan by the various car lines 

l he Queensboro Bridge, ferries from 34th Street and 92nd Street, L. I. R. R. to 
Penn. Station, and the new elevated system through the Steinway Tunnel, in addition 
to which are three car lines connecting with the Borough of Brooklyn. 

It is evident from the above transportation facilities that the section is and will 
grow faster than school accommodations can be provided and we are therefore naming 
the items in the order that they are needed. 

Item No. 1 — Site and Building in the Vicinity of Caldwell and Brittonere Streets 
inhurst). 

A site should be purchased and a building erected at the above location, which is 
about half between Public School No. 72 and Public School No. 89, in order to provide 
for the children of this section. 

This school would lake about 300 children from Public School No. 72 and about 
400 children from Public School No. 89, relieving both of these schools, which are 
now in a crowded condition and on part time. 

The children from this section are now conveyed to school by stages and trolley 
cars at a cost of approximately $3,200 per year, and as this means of conveyance is 
unhealthy and dangerous, the residents have been demanding for the past three years 
that some relief be given, but have been unable to gain any as yet. The Local School 
Board has investigated this section thoroughly and cannot even find accommodations 
for temporary quarters, and as the need is most urgent we recommend that something 
be done at once, thereby providing relief not only to this section, but also the two dis- 
tricts adjoining, where taxpayers are also complaining for more accommodations. 



313 

Item No. 2 — New Building on Site Now Ozvncd by City at Pierce and Rapelje Ave- 
nues (Astoria) . 

Although this location is not in District No. 42, the members of this Board wish 
to unite with Local School Board No. 41 in recommending that a building be erected 
on this property and thereby avoid crowded conditions in Public Schools Nos. 5 and 
6, which are in District No. 42, and where there are almost 1,200 children on part time 
and double session at the present time. 

The new elevated system now in operation passes through this section and no 
provision has been made for the increase of population to follow, notwithstanding 
that recommendations have been made by this Board several times. 

Item No. 3 — Building on City's Site at Forest Hills. 

It is recommended that a permanent building be erected on the site now owned 
by the City at Forest Hills, which would provide proper facilities for Forest Hills, 
Sage Foundation and New Gardens, where there are now three separate sets of port- 
able buildings with an organization that is not satisfactory, thereby making necessary 
to pay for the transportation of children to other schools. 

Item No. 4 — New Building for Public School No. 19. 

Present school building of Public School No. 19 will have to be abandoned owing 
to interference by the elevated road, which will start in operation in a few months, 
and as the section between Public School No. 19 and Public School No. 89 is to be . 
developed into a large apartment house section, which is now started, it is recom- 
mended that a new building be built west of Public School No. 19 to take care of this 
new section and also the present section in the vicinity of Public School No. 19. The 
present site could, no doubt, be exchanged for a new site in the location wanted. 
This work should be started at once, as the real estate developments will proceed at a 
very rapid pace as soon as the elevated is in operation. This school would also pro- 
vide for some relief at Public School No. 16 and Public School No. 92. 

Item No. 5 — Secure Site and Erect Building at East Elmhurst. 

The present two-room portable buildings should be replaced by a permanent build- 
ing on a new site at East Elmhurst, which is located at too great a distance from Pub- 
lic School No. 92 to have children travel to same. 

The Taxpayers' Association of this section has called upon our Board several 
times demanding that they be, given a permanent building which will take care of the 
fast growing section north of Jackson Avenue and thereby avoid the danger of the 
children having to cross the busy thoroughfare of Astoria and Jackson Avenues. 

Item No, 6 — Site and Building, Jackson Heights. 

Jackson Heights is a section north of Public School No. 89, along the new elevated 
road and continuing over to Jackson Avenue. 

The Queensboro Corporation own about 500 lots in this section and have already 
built six five-story apartments which are occupied, and work is now in progress on a 
number more and have plans arranged to continue on this building work to take care 
of the influx due to the new elevated system. 

This development will be large enough to demand a school building for this section 
alone and it is recommended that a site be selected and building erected in the vicinity 
of Polk and Fillmore Avenues, between 20th and 21st Streets. 

Item No. 7 — Playground, Public School No. 98. 

This Board again wishes to recommend the purchase of the property in the rear 
of Public School No. 92 to allow for future extension of buildings and for playground 
purposes. This is the only vacant plot available in this section and can be now pur- 



314 

chased at a fair figure in comparison to any property which may be selected upon at a 
future date. 

Item 8 — Playground, Public School No. 89. 

A similar condition to that at Public School No. 92 prevails at Public School No. 
89, where vacant property can now be purchased adjoining the school for playground 
purposes and it is recommended that steps be taken at this time to purchase this prop- 
erty rather than selecting at some future date property which will have buildings 
erected upon it. 

Adjoining Public School No. 16 is a plot of ground on which the frame building 
formerly stood. Ths property should be put in shape in order that it may be used 
for suitable playground purposes. 

Local School Board No. 42 wishes to impress upon the members of the Board 
of Education that we have given considerable time to the study of school problems 
in our district and have thoroughly investigated the conditions before making the 
above recommendations. We have tried to gain the confidence of the people of this 
community by constantly looking out for the welfare of their school children and 
recommending in advance that certain faculties be provided to meet emergencies that 
we see coming, but regret we have received very little encouragement from the 
Board of Education, who have not seen fit to adopt the recommendations we have 
made from year to year or explained to us why the recommendations should not be 
adopted. We have tried to make the Local School Board the connecting link between 
the community and the Board of Education, by which the people of this section may 
obtain the proper school accommodations to which they are entitled ; however, we 
cannot hope to retain the confidence of our people unless we obtain results for our 
efforts. 

We feel that there is an urgent need for the improvements in school conditions 
which we recommend and earnestly request that this report be given proper consid- 
eration by observing conditions as they now exist and that you will advise us as to 
what action is taken in the matter. Yours very truly, 

, Chairman, Local School Board No. 42; , Secretary, 

Local School Board No. 42. 

School Sites and Buildings Required in District No. 42, New York City, as Recom- 
mended by the Local School Board. 

General Statement — This district comprises those sections of Queens Borough 
known as Astoria, Steinway, Woodside,. Winfield, Elmhurst, Corona, Corona Heights, 
North Beach, Forest Hills and Middle Village. It includes schools numbers 3, 5, 6, 
7, 9, 14 (17, 18), 16, 19, 78 (12), 84 (8), 85, 87, 89 (13), 92 (10, IS), 101. 

This section is connected with Manhattan Borough by the Queensboro Bridge ; 
92d Street Ferry ; the Astoria. Steinway, Corona, Flushing, and Calvary lines of the 
New York and Queens County Trolley ; and the Bridge Local Service and the main 
line of the Manhattan and Queens Traction Corporation from Jamaica. 

The Brooklyn Rapid Transit, with the Flushing, Metropolitan, and Grand Street 
lines, gives connection witli Brooklyn. The Long Island Railroad to Pennsylvania 
Station and 34th Street Ferry has stations at Woodside, Winfield. Cnrona and Forest 
Hills. 

Two elevated roads, Steinway-Astoria and Woodside-Corona, now building and 
nearing completion, are almost entirely in this school district. They connect with the 
Queensboro Bridge and will give low-fare rapid transit between most of the com- 
munities named above and the Boroughs of Manhattan, The Bronx and Brooklyn. 

Considerable residential building, especially of apartment houses, is under way, 
based upon the present transit facilities and in anticipation of the opening of the 



315 

elevated roads. Manufacturing plants are coming into the district about the Bridge 
Plaza and thousands of employees will seek homes in this borough. The actual 
operation of the elevated roads will unquestionably stimulate building to an unprece- 
dented degree. 

Specific Needs — Present conditions and the needs of the immediate future 
demand that school sites be acquired and school buildings erected, as follows : 

(1) Steinway. On the site already owned by the City at Pierce and Rapelye 
avenues and Brielle street, Long Island City, a building should be erected to relieve 
Public School No. 6. Public School No. 6 has S19 pupils on part time and is rapidly 
growing. 

(2) Corona. A site should be acquired and building erected at Lake, 41st and 
42d streets, Corona, to replace P. S. No. 19. The new elevated road on Roosevelt 
avenue cuts across one corner of the present school plot. The running of trains 
within a few feet of the building will seriously interfere with the work of the school. 

(3) Elmhurst. A site should be acquired and building erected at Caldwell and 
Brittonere streets, Elmhurst, to accommodate pupils now transported by trolley and 
stage to P. S. No. 89 and to relieve that school. 

(4) East Elmhurst. A site should be acquired and building erected at East Elm- 
hurst to replace the present two-room portable building, to accommodate pupils now 
walking long distances to P. S. No. 92 and to supply the growing territory north of 
Jackson' avenue. 

(5) Forest Hills Gardens. A site should be acquired and building erected at 
Forest Hills Gardens to replace the present four-room portable building, P. S. Xo. 
101, and to anticipate growth of community. 

(6) Forest Hills. A building should be erected on the site owned by the City 
at Colonial avenue, Livingston and Mjeteor streets, Forest Hills, to replace the present 
two-room portable building, P. S. No. 3, and to anticipate growth of community. 
The Board of Education has asked for $2,500 for alterations to P. S. No. 3 now 
standing on private plot. This money might better be spent in moving the building 
to the City-owned site. 

(7) Winfield. A site should be acquired and building erected at Winfield, north 
of Woodside avenue, and near Fiske avenue, to relieve >P. S. No. 78 and P. S. Xo. 12, 
which are now filled to capacity, and to meet rapid development along Jackson and 
Roosevelt avenues. 

(8) Playgrounds. Playgrounds should be acquired while plots are still vacant, 
in rear of P. S. No. 89, Elmhurst, and of P. S. No. 92, Corona. 

MICHAEL J. SHUGRUS, Chairman. 
George S. Ethiee, Secretary. 

135 -Fort Greene PI., Brooklyn, N. Y, March 16, 1917. 
Hon. Harry Robitzek, Chairman, Public Welfare Com., New York: 

Dear Sir — Understanding that your Committee is investigating educational 
matters in this city and thought it might interest you to know of a method of 
teaching that produces results in about one-half the time required by any method 
hitherto in use. 

I make this assertion notwithstanding the fact that the President of the Board 
of Education was acquainted with the details of nry plan and had received my offer 
to demonstrate it in a 500-pupil school at a total cost to the City of $2,000, and 
that he rejected this plan without such trial, or, in fact, any trial, before the appro- 
priation of millions for the obsolete and wasteful Gary plan was made. 

If interested I shall be glad to submit the details of my method to your 
Committee either orally or in writing at any time you may be pleased to elect 
Yours very truly, W. H. ROYSTONE. 



316 

The Speech Improvement Department of the New York City Schools was estab- 
lished for the purpose of correcting Speech Defects such as Stammering, Stuttering, 
Lisping, Defective Phonation and Foreign Accent. In the Public Schools of New 
York City we have at least 50,000 acute cases of Speech Defect; at present there are 
in our city only 6 Speech Improvement Teachers and a Director to do the enor- 
mous work of correcting these cases. 

The total of the Speech Improvement Teachers' payroll at present is $9,064.00 
(for the year 1917), as compared with the following amounts which represent the 
approximate amounts paid to teachers of the departments noted below : 

Mentally defective $245,511 49 

Shopwork 215,843 26 

Cooking 213,439 77 

Sewing 106,027 53 

Anaemic children 102,123 50 

Music 96,251 57 

Drawing 81,251 21 

Deaf 65,398 02 

German 65,222 60 

Crippled 62,556 63 

Many cases of Speech Defect are accompanied by mental suffering, which suf- 
fering disappears when Speech Defect is overcome. 

The duty of the school is to fit the child to be a useful member of Society. 
Are we in New York enabling the schools to perform this duty to the best of their 
ability when we allow child after child to graduate from our schools, still handi- 
capped by a marked Speech Defect despite the fact that there are among our 
teachers many who have made a study of Speech Improvement and are waiting 
for an appointment as a teacher of this all-important subject. 

April 13, 1917. 
To the Honorable Committee of the Board of Education: 

Mr. Chairman and Members of the General Welfare Committee — I represent 
the Mothers' Club of Public £chool No. 6, Queens, and I wish to give you a few 
facts regarding our school conditions. 

In October, 1914, the Mothers' Club appointed a Building Committee to work 
to improve the conditions of the school, as there were at that time over 300 chil- 
dren on part time. 

We called on Chairman YVilsey of the Committee on Buildings of the Board 
of Education and explained conditions in the school. Mr. Collins, the Deputy 
Superintendent of School Buildings, investigated and found our report to be true. 
\\Y hoped at that time that the erection of a new building would be the result. 
However, an annex was recommended. Our committee inspected and suggested 
vacant stores and buildings in the vicinity, but many reasons were given us why 
these places could not be used. 

Finally, it was decided that the annex would be built on the property adjoining 
the school and be rented to the Board of Education. By this time it was the 
Spring of 1915, and conditions were growing worse. Although we visited various 
officials to expedite matters this proposition was finally given up through delay in 
passing upon the terms of the lease. 

In the Fall of 1915 we again brought up the crowded condition of the school. 
We learned that it might be possible for us to get a portable building on the site 
owned by the city at Fourth and Pierce avenue. This would have relieved the con- 
gestion as a great many children come from that section. However this was denied 
us. 



317 

The next recommendation by the Board of Education was an addition to the 
school, for which an appropriation was asked. For some reason instead of an addi- 
tion, we were told that the Gary or Duplicate Plan would be installed. The 
Mothers' Club went on record with the Board of Education and the Board of 
Estimate, requesting that the Gary Plan be not installed in Public School No. 9, 
until it had demonstrated its value in the schools in which it was then being tried. 
Our wishes in this matter having been disregarded, and as the plans for the altera- 
tion of our building were being completed, we, with other representative? of our 
community, appeared before the Board of Education to request the original addi- 
tion. Our Borough President, Mr. Connolly, protested for us to the Board of 
Estimate and asked that our appropriation might not be lost. 

As part of the appropriation was to be used to purchase lots for playground 
space, we hoped to get the badly needed playground. But it seems this, too, has been 
denied us. It appears that we have been treated like disobedient children. 

The situation might have been relieved three years ago with much less expense, 
but we met with nothing but denials and delay. 

Gentlemen, we are of the opinion that, regardless of what is claimed for the 
Gary system, it cannot be of use in solving the situation in Public School No. 6, 
and what we want is a new building. 

MRS. EDWARD MATTHEWS, President, Mothers' Club P. S. No. 6, Long 
Island City. 

April 12th. 1917. 
General Welfare Committee, Board of Aldermen, New York City: 

Gentlemen — In reference to the proposed investigation of the adequacy and 
effectiveness of the New York City educational system, I beg to submit copies of the 
semi-annual reports of Local School Board No. 42, Borough of Queens, covering the 
requirements of this district and the difficulties met with in the efforts of the Local 
School Board to provide proper school facilities for the children of this section. 

As an example, I beg to cite the case of the recommendation of the Local School 
Board in reference to the purchase of a site and the erection of a school building in 
the vicinity of Caldwell Ave., Nassau Heights, Elmhurst, and also the erection of a 
permanent school building at Forest Hills. 

After careful advocation on the part of the Local School Board for a number of 
years for the adoption of these recommendations, they were finally approved by the 
member of the Board of Education, the Board of Superintendents, and adopted by the 
Beard of Education and forwarded to the Board of Estimate. 

We now understand that it is proposed that by making certain changes in Public 
School No. 89 and Public School No. 82, and having double session classes in these 
schools 'it will not be necessary to erect a new building at Nassau Heights. 

This may be a saving of money, but it is very evident that this arrangement will 
not benefit the children of Nassau Heights, who will have to travel or be conveyed a 
long distance to school as at present, and mentioned in attached report. 

Very truly yours, 
M. J. SHUGRU, Chairman, Local School Board No. 42, Borough of Queens. 

83 Kingslafid Ave., Corona, N. Y. 

Elmhurst, N. Y., March 16th. 1916. 
Mr. A. E. Palmerj Secretary, Board of Education, 59th Street and Park Avenue, 
New York City, N. Y. : 

Dear Sir — Following is a report of the conditions now existing in Local School 
Board, District No. 42, from which it is evident the urgent necessity that proper pro- 
vision be made to take care of the school accommodations for this section, which is 
fast improving, and at the opening of the elevated lines on Second Avenue and 



318 

Roosevelt Avenue in the near future will then increase at a rate that it will be 
impossible for our school system to keep up with. 

Newtown High School — 

Conditions of overcrowding and improper school facilities are even worse than at 
the time of our last report, and notwithstanding the fact that this recommendation 
stands first on the list of H. S. submitted by the Board of Superintendents nothing 
has been done to help the situation. 

Public School No. 19, Lake St., 4lst and 42nd Sts., Corona — 

The new elevated structure which is now about completed and will have trains 
running on ihe same in the near future passes over the school property and so close 
to the building that it will interfere with the work of this school. 

A new school building located at Lake Street, 41st and 42nd Street, is necessary, 
and should be in course of construction at this time. 

Pierce Ave., Rapclyca and Bridle St., Steinway Ave. — 

The crowded conditions which have existed at Public School No. 6, Steinway 
Avenue, have now reached a stage which is almost unbearable, notwithstanding the 
fact that this board has repeatedly requested that some action be taken to relieve 
these conditions until at the present time we now have 544 children on part timr 
Various propositions have been suggested by this board to bring about relief, but 
all have been of no avail. It was suggested that the auditorium be divided into 
class rooms with movable partitions, but this plan has not been approved. 

The owner of the property adjacent to the school building offered to erect a 
building which would be leased to the city for school purposes, but finally tired of 
waiting for the Board of Education to adjust matters and decided to use his capital 
for other purposes. 

The erection of a portable building on the city site at Pierce and Rapelyet Ave- 
nues and Briello Street was recommended by the Board of Education, authorized 
by tlie Hoard <>l Alderman, but not approved by the Board of Estimate and the people 
of this section who are heavily taxed for school accommodations which they are 
deprived of are forced to sit back and watch the situation drift, while the Board 
of Estimate is trying to make up its mind as to whether a Gary school should be 

nized at this school. 

Ibr selection of a site and the erection of a school in the vicinity of Sixteenth 
Street and Graham Avenue was suggested, but no favorable action taken. 

In view of the above facts and the necessity of providing accommodations at 
once for a section which has indeed been neglected, we would suggest that a per- 
manent building bi erected on the present site at Pierce and Rapelyea Avenues and 
Brielle Street as soon as possible. 

dwell and Brittonere Streets, Elmhurst — The selection of a site and the erec- 
tion of a permanent building for this section has been recommended by this board 
repeatedly. 

The children of this section are not within walking distance to the nearest 
school available and are forced to travel by trolley car and stage which is both 
dangerous and unhealthy. 

Elmhurst — A three room portable building formerly used as P. S. No. 17 
has been erected in this section and while it is furnishing temporary relief only it 
should not delay the selection of a site for a permanent building. 

i r< tofore a stage has travelled to this section to take the children to P. S. 92 
and P. S. 15, and notwithstanding that the Local Board who have been over the field 
and understand the necessity of this stage and have so recommended, the Board of 
Education has seen fit to remove this stage. 

Action should also be taken to provide a permanent site and school for this 
neighborhood. 



319 

Forest Hills — A permanent site having been selected arrangements should be 
made for the erection of a permanent building. 

Forest Hills Gardens — This school having now been made a separate school a site 
for a permanent building should be selected before the property is built up. This 
would allow the purchose of this property at a better figure than later on when new 
buildings may cover the site required. 

P. S. 12, Winfield — We again wish to recommend the selection of a site to 
provide for a new building which will be required when this section starts to build 
up with the opening of the elevated and the construction of apartment houses in 
this vicinity. 

P. S. 92, Playground — The vacant plot adjoining this school is necessary for 
playgrounds and to provide for an addition to this school which is central to the 
population drawn upon. 

It is rumored that the owner intends to sell this property for building lots and 
something should be done at once. 

General — A year ago we suggested that the Public Libraries be located in the 
school building, and as we have received no reply as yet, would, therefore, like to 
know the position of the Board of Education on this matter. 

A Social Center has been held at P. S. 89 during the past with excellent results 
as noted in the report to the board. 

Another social center has been organized in P. S. 16, Corona. 

A general steady increase in registration is noted throughout the district, the 
total increase for the past year amounting to 747. 

We would request that the board kindly advise us regarding what action was 
taken on our suggestion that street in front of the school be properly paved to assist 
in the keeping of the school rooms clear. 

The local school board is very much interested in the progress made in con- 
nection with the above items and would request that they be informed from time 
to time as to what action has been taken. 

Very truly yours, , Chairman, Local School Board No. 

42, Borough of Queens. 

Secretary. 

Board of Aldermen, Committee on General Welfare: 

Gentlemen — We are addressing your honorable body at this time hoping that we 
may convince you of the necessity tor additional playground surrounding Public 
School No. 4, Long Island City, and the advisability of securing surrounding property 
while said property is comparatively cheap. 

This .building — School No. 4 — has a legal seating capacity of nineteen hundred 
eight pupils (1,908). It extends from Crescent to Prospect Street, and the play- 
grounds on the Prospect Street side are a story higher than those on Crescent Street. 
The part of the building fronting on Crescent Street has a legal seating capacity of 
one thousand ninety-four (1,094). The play yards on the same side contain four 
thousand seven hundred eighty (4,780) square feet of space. This, as you will see, 
provides a little over four square feet of space for each pupil. We are sure you will 
agree with us that this is an entirely inadequate space for a play ground for these 
pupils. 

On the Prospect Street side of the building there are eight hundred fourteen (814) 
pupils. The yards on that side contain eight thousand one hundred eighty-four 
(8.184) square feet of space, or a little over ten (10) square feet for each pupil. 
While this amount of space per pupil is more than twice the amount provided by 
the Crescent Street yards, it is less than the amount of floor space required to 
properly seat pupils in classrooms. 



320 

In addition to the inadequacy of the space on the Crescent Street side of the 
building, those yards are shut in by a stone wall on two sides that prevents ■them 
from receiving a proper amount of light and sunshine. 

Unsatisfactory as these conditions are at the present time, they will be still more 
so when this locality is more thickly settled and it becomes necessary to establish 
recreation centers in this school. 

The land that would be needed to enlarge these yards could be bought at the 
present time at a comparatively reasonable price ; part of it is occupied by small 
buildings and part of it is vacant. 

We therefore earnestly and respectfully urge that, while property in this locality 
can lie bought for a reasonable price, your honorable body will take such measures 
as may be necessary to secure additional land for the enlargement of this site. 

Yours respectfully, MAE R. BAILEY, President of the Mothers' Club, Public 
School No. 4, Long Island City. 

(Mrs. J. W. Bailey), 229 Webster Avenue, Long Island City, New York. 

We also want an assembly hall and better janitor service. 

To the General Welfare Committee of the Board of Aldermen, assembled at Public 
School No. 6, Borough of Queens: 
I make specific complaint in reference to Public School No. 4, Borough of Queens. 

(1) The lack of playground and assembly space. 

(2) The unsanitary condition of the toilets. 

(3) General uncleanliness of the building. 

(4) A lack in the plumbing of long standing. 

I respectfully suggest as a remedy for the lack of playground and assembly space, 
the immediate purchase of adjoining property, at the present cheap price of land, and 
the erection of an addition to the present building, which shall contain an adequate 
assembly hall. 

(2) (31 These conditions appear to be directly traceable to our present Janitor 
system of paying the Janitor a stated salary, and permitting the Janitor to hire such 
quality and quantity of help as the most cheaply may, with consequent ill result for 
both pupils and faculty. The remedy for this condition might seem to be for the 
Supervisor of Janitors to be empowered to decide upon the help needed, and to pay 
separate and adequate salaries to the head Janitor and the help. 

(4) Such a condition should be impossible. A Committee on Care of Public 
Schools should be empowered to act promptly and efficiently in said and similar con- 
ditions. 

I would also suggest that convenient toilet paper containers be placed in the 
toilets. Respectfully submitted, 

MRS. ANNIE E. GRAY, Parent and Member of Mother's Club of Public School 
No. 4, Queens Borough, 235 First Avenue, Long Island City. 

April 21, 1917. 

Astoria Heights Taxpayers' Association, Long Island City, March 21, 1917. 
Alderman Harry Romtzek, Chairman, Aldermanic Chamber, New York: 

Dear Sir — As requested by our association, and as tentatively arranged for us 
by Mr. Peter J. Brady, we will be very much pleased to accept the date of Thursday, 
April 12, as being the date set for the public hearing of the Aldermanic Committee 
to be held in Queens. 

We desire this hearing in Long Island City, probably in the auditorium of Public 
School No. 6, on Steinway Avenue, near Broadway. 

If the meeting place does not meet with your approval we will arrange to held 
the hearing in one of the public halls in the neighborhood, but it is generally con- 
ceded by our committee in charge that the public school auditorium would attract the 
best class of the interested people. 



321 

Will you please advise me promptly whether I may positively arrange for this 
hearing on that date, in which event I will make the necessary announcements to the 
public at an early date. 

Thanking you for this opportunity, I am, yours very truly, 

GEORGE SEIDEL, 487 Broadway, Long Island City. 
Wilson & Wilson, Attorneys and Counselors at Law, April 24th, 1917. 
Miss Katherine R. Callahan, P. S. No. 115, East 92nd St., near Avenue M, Brook- 
lyn, N. Y. : 

Madame — I am advised that there will be a meeting of a Committee of Alder- 
men on April 26th, for the purpose of giving residents of this school district an 
opportunity to present local school needs. The residents of this school district have 
all agreed that a new school is a vital necessity, as the present school building is 
entirely unfit for school purposes, by reason of the fact that it is unsanitarv and un- 
comfortable in Winter to such an extent as to endanger the health of the pupils. 
The building is inadequate for the number of scholars in the district, as the children 
are now on part time and many are compelled to attend Public School No. 114. 

It cannot be too strongly urged that the welfare of our pupils demands the imme- 
diate erection of a new school. Yours respectfully, WILLIAM R. WIESON. 

Argument of Judge Edward A. Richards, as President, and on Behalf of High School 
Committee on One Hundred for East New York and Brownsville. 

April 26, 1917. 
To the Committee on General Welfare, Board of Aldermen, City of New York: 

On behalf of the "High School Committee of One Hundred for East New York 
and Brownsville," composed of leading citizens of this community, I appear here 
to-night to voice the dissatisfaction and disappointment felt because of the failure 
of the Board of Education to request, and the Board of Estimate and Apportionment 
to provide, an appropriation for a High School in school districts 39 and 40, not- 
withstanding the act that five years have elapsed since a site therefor was selected. 

For many years it has been apparent to every one acquainted with this rapidly 
growing district that a High School here was absolutely necessary, and in all fairness 
should be had. 

Six years ago, after much urging by public spirited citizens, the question of a 
High School foe these districts was taken up by the Board of Education and referred 
by them to their- Committee on High Schools and Training Schools, which Committee 
on May 1st, 1912, made the following report (see Journal of Board, page 770) : 

"To the Board of Education : The Committee on High Schools and Train- 
ing Schools respectfully reports that it has had under consideration for some 
time the matter of the need .of additional high school facilities in the East New 
York section of Brooklyn. An item providing for a site and building in this part 
of the city, known as the 26th Ward of Brooklyn, was included in the estimate 
of corporate stock requirements for the year 1911. There are now in the high 
schools of Brooklyn and Queens over 12,000 students who reside in this section. 
A careful survey of the territory has been made by your Committee, and it is 
recommended that a site be acquired south of Pitkin Avenue and east of Rocka- 
way Avenue to accommodate the students from this section. 
"The following resolution is submitted for adoption: 

"Resolved, That the Committee on Sites be and it is hereby requested to 
select a site for a high school in East New York section of Brooklyn, to be 
located south of Pitkin Avenue and east of Rockaway Avenue, Brooklyn. 

"CORNELIUS J. SULLIVAN, Chairman, Committee on High Schools, etc." 
This report was approved and the resolution adopted by a unanimous vote by 
the Board of Education on May 8th, 1912. 



322 

Site Selected and Purchased. 

On November 27th, 1912, the Committee on Sites recommended the purchase of 
a plot of ground, 195 feet by 410 feet, on the north side of Dumont Avenue, between 
Sheffield and Pennsylvania Avenues, Brooklyn, and the Board was "requested to 
taxe such action as may be necessary and proper for the acquisition of the land." 

This report was approved and the resolution adopted by a unanimous vote. (See 
Journal of Board, page 2113.) 

On February 23rd, 1913, the Board of Estimate authorized the purchase of this 
site for the sum of $88,000, and on March 31st, 1913, title thereto was acquired by the 
City. 

For over three years thereafter no move was made looking to the erection of the 
High School building, although the need therefor was constantly increasing. 

Money Appropriated for Building. 
On June 9th, 1916, at the request of the Board of Education, the Board of Esti- 
mate appropriated the sum of $543,474 for the construction and equipment of a public 
school building on this site, and it looked as though at last we were to have our 
High School. 

Plans Changed; People Protest. 

it was soon discovered by the people of the district that, instead of intending to 
erect a High School building, it was the plan of the Board of Education to put up 
on this High School site a combination school building, with only a few class rooms 
for High School students. 

I o i bis change in plans, and to the use of this High School site for an Element- 
ary School, there was a protest from the people of this district and because of this 
the plans and specifications, which were already in the making, were abandoned and 
nothing further done until this year. 

When it became known that the Board of Education was about to ask an ap- 
propriation of approximately $6,000,000 "for new school buildings, alterations and 
equipment, additional lands and addtions to existing buildings," the people of these 
school districts felt certain that the Board would recognize their just demands and 
provide for a proper building on this High School site so long left vacant. To our 
astonishment, when a copy of this resolution became public, we discovered that 
iti in I \ thereof read as follows (see Journal of Board, Feb. 28th, 1917, page 337) : 

"District No. 40. Purchased site northeast of 174 for new building for which 

money was appropriated in June, 1916, thus leaving the .Sheffield and Dumont 

Avenue site free for High School Purposes, $240,000." 

Board Requests Rescission of Appropriation. 

Inmx.li.it, K upon learning of this request, and appreciating the significance 

thereof, this Committee, as well as several civic bodies in this section, protested 

against the use of any part of the appropriation of June, 1916, for any other purpose 

than the erection of a High School building on the site already acquired. Our pro- 

went unheeded and instead of permitting this money to be used for a High 

ioI building there was on March 14th, 1917, offered by Mrs. Mullan, on behalf of 

the Committee on Buildings and Sites, the following resolution (see Journal of Board, 

page 446) : 

"Resolved, That the Board of Estimate and Apportionment be, and it is 
hereby requested to rescind the resolution adopted by it on June. 9th, 1916, ap- 
propriating $543,474 for the construction and equipment of a new public school 
building on a site owned by the City at Dumont, Pennsylvania and Sheffield 
Avenues, Borough of Brooklyn, and to appropriate a similar amount for the 
i onstruction and equipment of a new school building on a site to be acquired north- 
east of Public School 174, Brooklyn." 



323 

This resolution, after opposition by Messrs. Somer, Greene and Whalen, was 
adopted by a vote of 27 in favor and 8 opposed. 

On March 27th, 1917, the Board of Education selected and determined, as a site 
for school purposes, a piece of ground on Dumont Avenue, between Vermont and 
Wyona streets (within two blocks of the high school site), and the money here- 
tofore appropriated for a building on this high school site will be used for an ele- 
mentary school. 

High School Site to Remain Vacant. 

Thus it will be seen that, although these two Boards, more than five years ago, 
recognized the necessity of a high school in this section and the justness of the 
demand of the people therefoi, and, although a site was purchased for a high school, 
and money appropriated for a building thereon, the Board of Education has now 
deliberately recommended that the high school site continue vacant and the money 
already appropriated for a building thereon be taken away and used for another 
purpose. This action the people of these districts regard as unfair and unwar- 
ranted. We have protested against this action to the Board of Education and now 
desire to protest to you as the district representatives of the people. 

Our section of the city is one that now is, and for fifteen years last past has been, 
rapidly developing, and in which the assessed valuation of property has been con- 
stantly on the increase. 

Twelve Thousand High School Students in 1912. 

As we said in the report of the High School Committee to the Board of Edu- 
cation on May 8th, 1913 (see Journal of Board, page 770), there were then "in the 
high schools of Brooklyn and Queens over 12,00 students who reside in this sec- 
tion," and, if there were, five years ago, 12,000 school children from this section 
in the high schools of Brooklyn and Queens, there certainly are very many more 
to-day. Taking the Dumont Avenue site, selected by the Board as the centre of 
the high school student population of these school districts, it will be found that 
there is not a single high school within reasonable walking distance, as the fol- 
lowing table will show : 

Bushwick High School, over three (3) miles distant. 

Commercial High School, over three (3) miles distant. 

Boys High School, three and one-half (3j/;>) miles. 

Erasmus High School, four (4) miles. 

Richmond Hill High School, four (4) miles. 

Eastern District High School, five (5) miles. 

Jamaica High School, six (6) miles. 

It .is quite apparent, therefore, that these 12,000, or more, students are com- 
pelled to spend ten cents a day carfare and at least ten cents a day for luncheon, 
making an expense of at least $1.00 a week. Figuring this for the ten months in 
the year, it will be seen that it costs each high school student upward of $40 a year. 
Multiplying this amount by 12,000, we find that it costs the people of this section 
upwards of $480,000 a year, or, in other words, an amount each year equal to the 
cost of the high school which they demand and which the Board of Education 
and the Board of Estimate admitted five years ago they were entitled to. 

In addition to this, there is the time lost by the children traveling back and 
forth, which amounts to at least one hour, and in many cases to two hours, a day. 
The great majority of these students come from families of very limited means 
and many are required to seek employment after school to help support themselves 
rind their family. This long travel invokes much waste of time and energy and 
adds to the hardship of the student and the family, not to mention the crowding, 
and unseemly conditions in travel. 



324 

Cypress Hills and City Line Sections Also Neglected. 

While it has been pointed out that the Brooklyn high schools are many miles 
distant from the proposed Dumont Avenue High School, it must be remembered 
that there are very many children living as much as two miles east of this site 
and still in these school districts. 

Since the Dumont Avenue High School will not accommodate one-half of the 
high school students in these school districts, it has been suggested by a number 
of civic bodies, including the Cypress Hills Board of Trade, the City Line Board 
of Trade and the Highland Park South Civic Association, that the Truant School 
building, with its fine large site on Jamaica Avenue, just beyond the Brooklyn Bor- 
ough line, might be used at once for high school students, pending the erection and 
completion of a modern building on the Dumond Avenue site, and it is believed that 
this experiment would not only prove absolutely the necessity for the proposed high 
school on the site already selected, but would demonstrate the wisdom of a con- 
tinuance of the Truant School buildings for high school purposes and of additions 
thereto. 

High School Mortality. 

It appears from the registers that many of the children who enter high school 

me discouraged and do not complete their course. This is doubtless due not 

only to the inconvenience and discomfort of overcrowding, but more especially in 
the case of the children in these districts, to the physical and financial burden of 
Ion- travel to and from the schools and to the inability of the parents to provide 
the means. 

I'n fair to Overcrowd Bushwick High School. 

The Bushwick High School, which is the newest in Brooklyn, and nearest to our 
section, and which the majority of our children select, is the largest High School 
in Brooklyn, and is already so overcrowded that annexes have had to be provided. It 
appears that while there is seating capacity for 2,834 there were on the register on 
February 28, 1916, as mary as 3,691 students. This overcrowding is due to the very 
large number of students from East New York and Brownsville attending the Bush- 
wick High School. This overcrowding causes many inconveniences and discomforts 
and detracts from the efficiency of the school. This is not only unfair to the 
people oi East New York and Brownsville, but is equally unfair and unjust to the 
people of tin- Bushwick section who should have their High School for their own 
children who are more than enough to fill it. 

If the High School proposed for our section were in use to-day, it would be 
already overcrowded. The largest High School in Brooklyn has a register of less 
than 4.(100 students, while five years ago East New York and Brownsville had over 
12.000 students. 

2.900 High School Students a Year. 

Of the children who graduated in February, 1917, from the elementary schools, 
in District-; 39 and 40, there were > 1,441 who proposed to attend High School, so 
that it will be seen that we are graduating, and making ready for High School, nearly 
2,900 students a year. 

Some idea of the present and future need of a High School in this section may 
be gathered from the fact that there is now on the register of the elementary and 
grammar schools in District 39, 28,736 pupils, and in District 40, 28,609 pupils, 
making a total of 55,435. 

Nearly 25 Per cent. Increase in Five Years. 
Five years ago, when this High School site was purchased, there was on the 
ter of the schools of these districts 45,854 pupils. In view of the increase of the 
number of school children in these five years, how can the Board of Education or 



325 

the Board of Estimate justify their refusal to provide a High School building for 
these school districts ? 

It is interesting to note that the map of New York City prepared by the Com- 
mittee on City Plan of the Board of Estimate and Apportionment shows that the 
greatest density of population in the entire Borough of Brooklyn is within a stone's 
throw of the Dumont Avenue High School site and nearly three miles distant from 
the nearest of the present High School Buildings. 

No Remedy in Duplicating Sessions. 

We protest against the argument that relief can be had by the High Schools in 
Brooklyn and Queens duplicating their sessions. It is apparent that our difficulty is 
not so much one of congestion, but of the long distance that our boys and girls 
are required to travel and the loss of time and expense involved. If this High School 
were built and in use to-day it would not have sufficient capacity for the children 
living in the school districts which it seeks to serve and even now it would be 
necessary to duplicate its sessions. 

Duplication of sessions in the present remote High Schools will simply mean 
that our young boys and girls are going to be crowded into the railroad cars going 
down in the rush hours in the morning, and return in the rush hours at night, all 
of which will be detrimental to them, physically and morally. It will add also to 
the discomfort of business men and women who must travel at these hours in the 
railroad cars already packed to the limit. 

Board of Education Controlled by Board of Estimate. 
We are of the impression that there is considerable sentiment among the Com- 
missioners of the Board of Education in favor of the immediate building of this 
school, and that the majority of them realize that the demand of the people of 
these districts is just and fair. It seems to some of us that the Board of Education 
is to-day in these respects under the guidance and control of some members of the 
Board of Estimate, or more especially its Committee on Education and is compelled 
to follow their dictates rather than to exercise its own free will and judgment. We 
believe that the records will show that more than one-half of the suggestions and 
recommendations of the Board of Education are disapproved by the Committee on 
Education of the Board of Estimate until it has come to such a pass that the Board 
of Education, before making requests, is compelled to consult with the Committee on 
Education and to do as it determines. And this is true, notwithstanding the policy 
advocated by the Committee on School Inquiry of the Board of Estimate in their 
exhaustive report, published in three large volumes in 1911-1913 (see Volume III., 
Page 31), as follows: 

Powers of Education. 

We believe further that the principle of home rule should be applied to Educa- 
tion * * * and that plenary power should be lodged in the Board of Education 
* * * to administer the schools with much the same freedom that is now ac- 
corded the Board of Estimate and Apportionment to administer the affairs of the 
City. For this reason we would recommend a short, simple school charter, fixing the 
size, method of selection, etc., of the Board of Education, endowing it practically 
all authority 'over the school administration and educational policies, subject to such 
control as should be lodged in the Board of Estimate and Apportionment over the 
appropriations and expenditures of the Board. 

High Schools More Needed Than Expensive Seashore Parks and Elaborate Court 

Houses. 
We know, for we have been often told, that though a High School in this 
section is badly needed, it cannot be provided on account of the large expense 
involved which would tend to raise the already too high tax rate in the city. We 



326 

do not want to raise the tax rate for we well know the burden of it and of the 
high assessed valuation of our real estate, but we desire you, as our direct repre- 
sentatives, and the Board of Estimate and Apportionment, to know that we want 
to have a voice in the expenditure of the money we pay in taxes and that we believe 
that schools are much more needed in the City of New York than expensive seashore 
parks or an elaborate court house in the Borough of Manhattan. 

Within the five years, since the City has selected this High School site, there 
has been spent for an unused and in part unusable court house site nearly $17,000,000, 
or enough to build seventeen High School buildings, such as this section has so long 
needed. In addition thereto, since our High School site was selected, the City has 
purchased and left undeveloped, land at Coney Island, costing over $2,000,000. We 
recognize the value of seashore parks and playgrounds, but we contend that, if it 
is a question of them or school buildings, the school buildings by all means should 
have been given the preference. 

We also call attention to the fact that since our High School site was selected, 
large sums have been spent for High School buildings or additions in other sections 
of the City, as follows : 
Flushing High School, Queen* — 

December 31, 1912 $500,000 00 

March 31, 1914 87,796 00 

July 27, 1916 20,330 00 

Evander Childs High Schools, The Bronx — 

June 13. 1912 500,000 00 

March 13. 1914 124,36100 

July 27, 1917 42,198 00 

Newtown High School, Queens— June, 1916 399,187 00 

Bryant High School, Queens— June, 1916 394.830 00 

Request. 

We hope that the Board of Aldermen, as the direct and responsible representa- 
tives of the people of the City, will resolve to oppose the rescission of the appro- 
priation of the High School in this section, and will urge upon the Board of Edu- 
cation and the Board of Estimate and Apportionment the immediate granting of an 
appropriation sufficient to build upon this site a proper and adequate building for 
the accommodation of the children of School Districts 39 and 40. Respectfully sub- 
mitted. EDWARD A. RICHARDS, President. 

At a meeting of the Mothers' Circle of P. S. 52, The Bronx, held March 21. 
1917, the following resolutions were unanimously adopted: 

Inasmuch as the members of this Circle have learned that the City authorities 
are trying to introduce the duplicate school plan into P. S. 52, The Bronx ; and 

Inasmuch as the members of the Circle, the introduction of said plan would 
not be for the best interests of the children attending P. S. 52, be it 

Resolved. By the Mothers' Circle of P. S. 52, The Bronx, that said Circle is 
opposed to the introduction of the Duplicate School Plan into P. S. 52, The Bronx, 
and n pectfull] requ* Sts those in authority to reconsider any plans for including P. 
S. 52, The Bronx, among the Schools in which said Duplicate School Plan is to be 
introduced ; and be it further 

Resolved. That copies of this resolution be transmitetd to the President of the 
Board of Education, the President of the Board of Aldermen, the President of the 
Borough of The Bronx, the Acting City Superintendent of Schools, the District 
Superintendent of the 23rd and 24th Districts and such other persons as may be 
designated. MRS. SALINGER, President. 

March 22, 1917. 

Mrs. I. Schorsch. 630 Union Avenue, Bronx, Secretary. 



327 

Tenants Union of New York, Inc., New York, March IS, 1917. 
To the General Welfare Committee of the Board of Aldermen, City of New York, 
Hon. Harry Robitzek, Chairman: 

Dear Sir — I hereby notified you that the above organization held a special meet- 
ing in order to comply with your notice published in the Bronx "Home News," the 
thirteenth of this month, the Tenants' Union, Bronx Branch, has appointed a special 
committee to attend the meeting either at Borough Hall or Morris High School. We 
are awaiting your date that you prefer, and we are in hope that you will give us 
twenty-four hours' time so that we are able to notify our delegates to be present. 
Yours respectfully, 

AUGUST HARBERMANN, Chairman, Former Representative of the Central 
Saba. 

Department of Education, The City of New York — Division of Reference and Research 
, — Statement Showing the Number. of Pupils Attending the Public High Schools of 
The City of New York and Residing in the Territory Bounded by 135th Street, 
Hudson and Harlem Rivers, Borough of Manhattan. 



General. 



High School Course. 



Commercial. M. T. or Tech. 



Total., 





B. 


G. 


B. 


G. 


B. 


G. 


B. 


G. 


DeWitt Clinton 




360 




__• 






360 




Stuvvesant 










174 




174 




Commerce 






167 








167 




Annex, P. S. 58.... 






120 








120 




Annex, P. S. 67.... 






169 








169 




Washington Irving. 




55 




74 








193 


Julia Richman 






36 










36 


Annex, P. S. 9.... 








125 








125 


Annex, P. S. 48.... 








86 








86 


Annex, P. S. 117.... 




2 




21 








23 


Annex, P. S. 87.... 




45 












45 






492 








60 




552 


Annex, P. S. 54... 




111 












111 


Annex, P. S. 179... 




141 












141 


Morris G. 22 




50 




2 






22 


52 


Annex, P. S. 31, Bx. 






1 


21 






1 


21 


Evander Childs (P. 


















S. 46) 


7 


6 


4 


5 






11 


11 


Hunter 




182 












182 


Townsend Harris.. 


367 












367 





Totals 

Grand Total 



756 1,084 



461 



370 



174 



124 1,391 1,578 
2,969 



328 

The Senate of the State of New York,' Albany. 
1912-1916. 

1. Number of pupils in school, 346. 

2. Seating capacity of school at present, including small buildings, 596; 38 of 
which are used for typewriting; 82 to be deducted in the fall to make gymnasium 
work possible, which will give 514 seats. 

3. Estimate of all attendance, 900. 

4. Farthest points from which we now receive pupils or expect to : 
North — Northern boundary of City. 

South — Forty-third Street now; in general 110th Street. 
West — Riverdale and Spuyten Duyvil. 
East — Grand Concourse. 

5. Distances (approximate) to high schools. 

a. Main Building, Morris, 5 miles. 

b. Evander Childs, 6 miles. 

c. Wadleigh, 5 miles. 

d. Washington Irving, 10 miles. 

e. Julia Richman, 10 miles. 

f. De Witt Clinton, 7 l / 2 miles. 

g. Stuyvesant, 10 miles. 

6. Total school population of district, over 30,000. 

7. Approximate number school will serve, over 3,000. 

8. Cens Ubany, 100,2253; 2 high schools. 

Rochester. 218.149; 3 high schools and 1 normal school; population, 45.000. 
Trenton, less than 100.000. 1 high school and 1 normal school which gives a 
high school course. School population, 17,000. (Government census, September.) 
Syracuse, 137,249; 3 high schools; school population, 22,000. 
Buffalo, 460,000: 6 high schools and 1 normal; school population, 65,000. 
Worcester, 145,986; high schools; school; school population, 29,000. 

9. Drawbacks of present building: 

a. Toilets on playground floor, near study room; odor very offensive and un- 
sanitary. 

b. Desks and seats too small for pupils of high school age. 

c. Corridors so narrow pupils find it difficult to pass one another. 

d. Dangerous to health for pupils, boys and girls, to pass back and forth from 
small portable houses, which must be used starting with September, to larger build- 
ings in inclement weather ami in winter. 

e. Only ventilation by windows. 

1". Portable houses heated by stoves, like famous "little red schoolhouse in 
country." either too hot or too cold always. 

g. No laboratories nor equipment for sciences, biology, chemistry, physics, 
physiography, which are required in curriculum. Regents Board will not accept ex- 
aminations from pupils who have met studied sciences by the laboratory method. 
This term we have succeeded in teaching biology, for materials are not so difficult to 
handle, though it is inconvenient and unsatisfactory. ■ Next February, 1918. chemistry 
must be taught, and February, 1919, physics must be taught, and neither of these can 
possibly be taught without laboratories. 

h. Great scarcity of cluset-room for books and equipment for work in high 
schools. 

i. No chance for library, which is sorely needed as there is no public library in 
locality for pupils to use. 

(Every small town and village in Massachusetts is better equipped with a public 
library than is this locality in New York Cty of many thousands.) 



329 

i. No possibility of having unch periods for pupils when school is run on double 
sessions as it will have to be in September next, and pupils need luncheons between 
8.20 and 12.45 or 12.50 and 5,30. 

k. Some rooms have no provision for hanging away clothing, while others have 
hooks on the walls, leaving clothes entirely unprotected. 

i. The mortality of school attendance in a community such as this is far less 
than in other localities. The mortality, i. c. percentage of discharged pupils is less 
than 2 per cent, this term. Mortality at Morris High School, 33 per cent. 

It will probably be possible to seat the pupils by maikng use of a double session 
next September, but after next term it will be almost impossible to accommodate the 
school, unless a building is begun immediately for occupancy by September 
and pushed rapidly, pupils will have to be sent to the various high schools mentioned 
above, several miles away. There are no public school buildings which can house 
various divisions, as is possible in other localities. 

Argument of Judge Edward A. Richards as President, and on Behalf, of High School 
Committee of One Hundred for East New York and Brownsville. 

April 26, 1917. 
To the Committee on General Welfare, Board of Aldermen, City of New York: 

On behalf of the "High School Committee of One Hundred for East New York 
and Brownsville," composed of leading citizens of this community, I appear here 
tonight to voice the dissatisfaction and disappointment felt because of the .failure of 
the Board of Education to request, and the Board of Estimate and Apportionment to 
provide, an appropriation for a High School in school districts 39 and 40, notwith- 
standing the fact that five years have elapsed since a site therefor was selected. 

For many years it has been apparent to every one acquainted with this rapidly 
growing district that a High School here was absolutely necessary and in all fair- 
ness should be had. 

Six years ago, after much urging by public-spirited citizens, the question of a 
High School for these districts was taken up by the Board of Education and re- 
ferred by them to their Committee on High Schools and Training Schools, which 
committee on May 1st, 1912, made the following report (see Journal of Board, page 
770): 

'To the Board of Education : 

"The Committee on High Schools and Training Schools respectfully reports 
that it has had under consideration for some time the matter of the need of 
additional high school facilities in the East New York section of Brooklyn. An 
item providing for a site and building in this part of the city, known as the 26th 
Ward of Brooklyn, was included in the estimate of Corporate Stock requirements 
for the year 1911. There are now in the high schools of Brooklyn and Queens 
over 12,000 students who reside in this section, A careful survey of the terri- 
tory has been made by your Committee, and it is recommended that a site be 
acquired south of Pitkin Avenue and east of Rockaway Avenue to accommodate 
the students from this section. 

"The following resolution is submitted for adoption : 

"Resolved, That the Committee on Sites be, and it is hereby requested to 
select a site for a high school in the East New York section of Brooklyn, to be 
located south of Pitkin Avenue and east of Rockaway Avenue, Brooklyn. 

"CORNELIUS J. SULLIVAN, Chairman, Committee on High Schools, etc." 

This report was approved and the resolution adopted by a unanimous vote by the 
Board of Education on May 8th, 1912. 



330 

Site Selected and Purchased. 

On November 27th, 1912, the Committee on Sites recommended the purchase of 
a plot of ground 195 feet by 410 feet on the north side of Dumont Avenue, between 
Sheffield and Pennsylvania Avenues, Brooklyn, and the Board was "requested to take 
such action as may be necessary and proper for the acquisition of the land." 

This report was approved and the resolutions adopted by a unanimous vote. 
(See Journal of Board, page 2113.) 

On February 23d, 1913, the Board of Estimate authorized the purchase of this 
site for the sum of $84,000, and on March 31st, 1913, title thereto was acquired by 
the City. 

For over three years thereafter no move was made looking to the erection of 
the High School building, although the need therefor was constantly increasing. 

Money Appropriated for Building. 
On June 9th, 1916, at the request of the Board of Education, the Board of Esti- 
mate appropriated the sum of $543,474 for the construction and equipment of a 
public school building on this site, and it looked as though at last we were to have 
our High School. 

Plaits Changed; People Protest. 

It was soon discovered by the people of the district that, instead of intending to 
erect a High School building, it was the plan O'f the Board of Education to put up 
on this High School site a combination school building, with only a few class rooms 
for High School students. 

To this change in plans, and to the use of this High School site for an Ele- 
mentary School, there was a protest from the people of this district and because of 
this the plans and specifications, which were already in the making, were abandoned 
and nothing further done until this year. 

When it became known that the Board of Education was about to ask an appro- 
priation of approximately $6,000,00 "for new school buildings, alterations and equip- 
ment, additional land and additions to existing buildings," the people of these school 
districts felt certain that the Board would recognize their just demands and provide 
for a proper building on this High School site so long left vacant. To our great 
astonishment, when a copy of this resolution became public, we discovered that Item 
IV thereof read as follows (see Journal of Board, Feb. 28, 1917, page 337) : 

"District Xo. 40. Purchased site northeast of 174 for new building for 

which money was appropriated in June, 1917, thus leaving the Sheffield and 

1 )umont Avenue site free for High School purposes, $240,000." 

Board Requests Rescission of Appropriation. 
Immediately upon learning of this request, and appreciating the significance 
thereof, this Committee, as well as several civic bodies in the section, protested against 
the use of any part of the appropriation of June, 1916, for any other purpose than 
the erection of a High School building on the site already acquired. Our protest 
went unheeded ami instead of permitting this money to be used for a High School 
building then- was, on March 14th. 1917, offered by Mrs. Mullan, on behalf of the 
Committee on Buildings and Sites, the following resolution (see Journal of Board, 
page 44' > I : 

"Resolved, That the Board of Estimate and Apportionment be, and it is 
hereby, requested to rescind the resolution adopted by it on June 9, 1916, appro- 
priating $543,474 for the construction and equipment of a new public school build- 
ing on a site owned by the City at Dumont, Pennsylvania and Sheffield Avenues, 
Borough of Brooklyn, and to appropriate a similar amount for the construction 
and equipment of a new school building on a site to be acquired northeast of 
Public School 174, Brooklyn." 



331 

This resolution after opposition by Messrs. Somers, Green and Whalen was 
adopted by a vote of 27 in favor and 8 opposed. 

On March 28, 1917, the Board of Education selected and determined as a site 
for school purposes a piece of ground on Dumont Avenue, between Vermont and 
Wyona Streets (within two blocks of the High School site) and the money hereto- 
fore appropriated for a building on this High School site will be used for an Ele- 
mentary School. 

High School Site to Remain Vacant. 

Thus it will be seen that, although these two Boards more than five years ago 
recognized the necessity of a High School in this section and the justness of the 
demand of the people therefor, and although a site was purchased for a High School 
and money appropriated for a building thereon, the Board of Education has now 
deliberately recommended that the High School site continue vacant and the money 
already appropriated for a building thereon be taken away and used for another 
purpose. This action the people of these districts regard as unfair and unwarranted. 
We have protested against this action to the Board of Education and now desire to 
protest to you as the direct representatives of the people. 

Our section of the city is one that now is, and for fifteen years last past has been, 
rapidly developing, and in which the assessed valuations of property have been con- 
stantly on the increase. 

12,000 High School Students in 1912. 

As was said in the report of the High School Committee to the Board of Educa- 
tion on May 8, 1912 (see Journal of Board, page 770), there were then "in the High 
Schools of Brooklyn and Queens over 12,000 students who reside in this section," and 
if there were, five years ago, 12,000 school children from this section in the High 
Schools of Brooklyn and Queens there certainly are very many more today. Taking 
the Dumont Avenue site selected by the Board as the centre of the high school 
student population of these school districts it will be found that there is not a single 
High School within reasonable walking distance, as the following table will show: 

Bushwick High School, over three (3) miles distant. 

Commercial High School, over three (3) miles distant. 

Boys' High School, three and one-half (3J^) miles. 

Erasmus High School, four (4) miles. 

Richmond Hill High School, four (4) miles. 

Eastern District High School, five (5) miles. 

Jamaica High School, six (6) miles. 

It is quite apparent, therefore, that these 12,000 (or more) students are compelled 
to spend ten cents a day car fare and at least ten cents a day for luncheon, making 
an expense of at least $1 a week. Figuring this for the ten school months in the 
year, it will be seen that it costs each High School student upwards of $40 a year. 
Multiplying this amount by 12,000 we find that it costs the people of this section up- 
wards of $480,000 a year, or in other words an amount each year equal to the cost of 
the High School which they demand and which the Board of Education and the 
Board of Estimate admitted five years ago they were entitled to. 

In addition to this, there is the time lost by the children traveling back and forth, 
which amounts to at least one hour, and in many cases to two hours, a day. The 
great majority of these students come from families of very limited means, and many 
are required to seek employment after school to help support themselves and their 
family. This l'ong travel involves much waste of time and energy and adds to the 
hardship of the student and the family, not to mention the crowding and unseemly 
conditions in travel. 



332 

Cypress Hills and City Line Sections also Neglected. 

While it has been pointed out that the Brooklyn High Schools are many miles 
distant from the proposed Dumont Avenue High School, it must be remembered that 
there are very many children living as much as two miles east of this site and still 
in these school districts. 

Since the Dumont Avenue High School will not accommodate one-half of the 
High School students in these school districts, it has been suggested by a number of 
civic bodies, including the Cypress Hills Board of Trade, the City Line Board of 
Trade and the Highland Park South Civic Association, that the Truant School build- 
ing, with its fine large site on Jamaica Avenue, just beyond the Brooklyn Borough line, 
might be used at once for High School students, pending the erection and completion 
of a modern building on the Dumont Avenue site and it is believed that this experi- 
ment would not only prove absolutely the necessity for the proposed High School on 
the site already selected but would demonstrate the wisdom of a continuance of the 
Truant School buildings for High School purpose and of additions thereto. 

High School Mortality. 
It appears from the registers that many of the children who enter High School 
become discouraged and do not complete their course. This is doubtless due, not 
only to the inconvenience and discomfort of overcrowding, but more especially in the 
case of the children in these districts, to the physical and financial burden of long 
travel to and from the schools and to the inability of the parents to provide the means. 

Unfair to Overcrowd Bushwick High School. 

The Bushwick High School, which is the newest in Brooklyn, and nearest to our 
section, and which the majority of our children select, is the largest High School in 

oklyn and is already so overcrowded that annexes have had to be provided. It 
appears that while there is seating capacity for 2,834 there were on the register on 
February 2S, 1916, as many as 3,691 students. This overcrowding is due to the very 

- number of students from East New York and Brownsville attending the Bush- 
wick High School. This overcrowding causes many inconveniences and discomforts 
.ind retracts from the efficiency of the school. This is not only unfair to the people 
of East New York and Brownsville, but is equally unfair and unjust to the people 
of the Bushwick section, who should have their High School for their own children 
who are more than enough to fill it. 

If the High School proposed for our section were in use to-day, it would be 

idy overcrowded. The largest High School in Brooklyn has a register of less 
ili. in 4,000 students, while five years ago East New York and Brownsville had over 
12,000 High School students. 

2,900 High School Students A Year. 

Of the children who graduated in February, 1917, from the elementary schools 
in Districts 39 and 40, there were 1,441 who proposed to attend High School, so that 
it will be seen that we are graduating, and making ready for High School, nearly 
2,900 students a year. 

Some idea of the present and future need of a High School in this section may 
be gathered from the fact that there is now on the register of the elementary and 
grammar schools in District 39, 28,736 pupils, and in District 40, 26,609 pupils, making 
a total of 55,345. 

Nearly 25 Per Cent. Increase in Five Years. 

Five years ago. when this High School site was purchased, there was on the 
register of the schools in these districts 45.854 pupils. In view of the increase in the 
number of school children in these five years, how can the Board of Education or the 



333 

Board of Estimate justify their refusal to provide a High School building for these 
school districts? 

It is interesting to note that the Map oT New York City prepared by the Com- 
mittee on City Plan of the Board of Estimate and Apportionment, shows that the 
greatest density of population in the entire Borough of Brooklyn is within a stone's 
throw of the Dumont Avenue High School site, and nearly three miles distant from 
the nearest of the present High School buildings. 

No Remedy in Duplicating Sessions. 

We protest against the argument that relief can be had by the High Schools in 
Brooklyn and Queens duplicating their sessions. It is apparent that our difficulty is 
not so much one of congestion but of the long distance that our boys and girls are 
required to travel and the loss of time and expense involved. If this High School were 
built and in use to-day it would not have sufficient capacity for the children living 
in the school districts which it seeks to serve, and even now it would be necessary 
to duplicate its sessions. 

Duplication of sessions in the present remote High Schools will simply mean that 
our young boys and girls are going to be crowded into the railroad cars going down 
in the rush hours in the morning, and return in the rush hours at night, all of which 
will be detrimental to them physically and morally. It will add also to the discomfort 
of business men and women who must travel at these hours in the railroad cars 
already packed to the limit. 

Board of Education Controlled by Board of Estimate. 

We are of the impression that there is considerable sentiment among the Com- 
missioners of the Board of Education in favor of the immediate building of this High 
School, and that the majority of them realize that the demand of the people of these 
districts is just and fair. It seems to some of us that the Board of Education is to-day 
in these respects under the guidance and control of some members of the Board of 
Estimate, or more especially its Committee on Education, and is compelled to follow 
their dictates rather than to exercise its own free will and judgment. We believe that 
the records will show that more than one-half of the suggestions and recommenda- 
tions of the Board of Education are disapproved by the Committee on Education of 
the Board of Estimate, until it has come to such a pass that the Board of Education, 
before making requests, is compelled to consult with the Committee on Education 
and to do as it determines. And this is true, notwithstanding the policy advocated 
by the Committee on School Inquiry of the Board of Estimate in their exhaustive 
report, published in three large volumes in 1911-1913 (see Volume III., Page 31), as' 
follows : - 

'E. Powers of Education — 

"We believe further that the principle of home rule should be applied to 
education * * * and that plenary power should be lodged in the Board of 
Education * * * to administer the schools with much the same freedom 
that is now accorded the Board of Estimate and Apportionment to administer 
the affairs of the City. For this reason we would recommend a short, simple, 
school charter, fixing the size, method of selection, etc., of the Board of Educa- 
tion, endowing it with practically all authority over the school administration 
and educational policies, subject to such control as should be lodged in the Board 
of Estimate and Apportionment over the appropriations and expenditures of the 
Board." 



334 

High Schools More Needed than Expensive Seashore Parks and Elaborate Court- 
houses. 

We know, for we have been often told, that though a high school in this section 
is badly needed, it cannot be provided on account of the large expense involved 
which would tend to raise the already too high tax rate in the City. We do not 
want to raise the tax rate for we well know the burden of it and of the high assessed 
valuations of our real estate, but we desire you, as our direct representatives, and 
the Board of Estimate and Apportionment, to know that we want to have a voice in 
the expenditure of the money we pay in taxes and that we believe that schools are 
much more needed in the City of New York than expensive seashore parks or an 
elaborate court house in the Borough of Manhattan. 

Within the live years since the City has selected this high school site, there has 
been spent for an unused and in part unusable court house site nearly $17,000,000. 
mi- enough to build seventeen high school buildings, such as this section has go long 

ed. In addition thereto, since our high school site was selected, the City has 
purchased, and left undeveloped, land at Coney island, costing over $2,000,000, and 
a site at Rockaway Beach, costing nearly $1,300,000. We recognize the value of sea- 
shore parks and playgrounds, but we contend that, if it is a question of them or 
school buildings, the school buildings by all means should have been given the 
nee. 

We also call attention to the fact that since our high school site was selected 
large sums have been spent for high school buildings or additions in other sections 
of the City, as follow s : 

Flushing High Scl 1, Queens — 

31, 1912 $500,000 00 

March 13, 1914 87,796 00 

July 27, 1916 20,389 00 

i r Childs High School. The Bronx — 

June 13, 191-' 500,000 CO 

March 13, 1914 124,361 00 

July 27, 1916 42,198 00 

Newton High £ fune, 1916 399,187 00 

Bryant High School, Queens June, 1916 394,830 00 

Request. 

We hope that the Board of Aldermen, as the direct and responsible repre- 
sentatives of the people of the City, will resolve to oppose the rescission of the 
appropriation for a High School in this section, and will urge upon the Board of 
Education and the Hoard of Estimate and Apportionment the immediate granting of 
an appropriation sufficient to build upon this site a proper and adequate building 
for the accommodation of the children of School Districts 39 and 40. Respectfully 
submitted, EDWARD A. RICHARDS, President. 

As a member of the Local School Board of District 39 assigned to Public 
School 118 in Canarsie. I desire to present to the General Welfare Committee of 
the Board of Aldermen the deplorable school building facilities relative to this 
school; also letters from individuals and organizations. I have had prepared photo- 
graphs showing exact conditions. 

The main frame building was erected in 1890 by the old Town of Flatlands 
and was turned over to the City, together with other resources of the Town, free 
and clear of all debt, as when the Town of Flatlands was annexed to Brooklyn 
and subsequently became part of Greater New York, there was a surplus in the 
Town's Treasury of $50,000 and free from debt. The surrounding old one class 



335 

room frame buildings were later moved there by the City from other locations. 
Please note that these portable structures are placed on wooden posts with straight 
spaces between the floors and the ground, heated by portable stoves and with no 
sanitary improvements, the drinking water is in the yard and supplied through a 
single tap, the character of which is anything but modern when considered for 
drinking purposes. These buildings are not even filled between the studdings, but 
are sealed inside and outside with light frame materials and they rock in the high 
winds prevalent near Jamaica Bay. If buildings of this character were offered for 
rent for school purposes to the City the necessary permit would not be granted 
as the same are in direct violation of the building code and the fire laws of the City 
of New York regulating public buildings. To one, not in the know, the appearance 
here is likened unto a series of pest houses. 

The City in 1908 purchased a plot of ground adjoining the original site on che 
south, with the evident intention of building a new school. The need was urgent 
then and is more keenly felt now. Eleven years hence the health of the teachers and 
pupils alone demand a modern school building on this City-owned site. The con- 
ditions here in the Winter months are terrible. The absolute need of an auditorium 
is felt by the community in general. 

A school census of this school district, conducted in April, 1916, by the Parents' 
Association disclosed the fact that at that time there were 658 children under 18 
years of age living within the boundaries. The total register is 322, with sittings 
for but 198. 

Our Local School Board's last semi-annual report includes the following recom- 
mendation : 

We desire again to call attention to the unwholesome conditions in P. S. 115 
• in Canarsie. 

Here the City owns a large plot upon which set portable rooms, without cellar 
space, on the cold ground, draughty, heated by stoves and with toilet facilities that 
are little less than inhumane. 

The children of the upper grade (past the 8A grade) must pass this set of 
structures and go nearly a mile further up the road to P. S. 114. Recently the 
parents appealed for relief and we earnestly endorse their request. 

In this connection we quote from a report made by District Superintendent 
Nicholson to Associate Superintendent Shallow : 

"P. S. 115 is a group of detached wooden buildings; there are no facilities 
for the communal advantages of assemblies. Toilet facilities are atrocious. 

There is ample ground lying to the south of the main building. I believe the 
solution of the problem would be the erection of a one-story structure having two 
parallel rows of three class rooms each with folding doors. 

We could then care for the children for whom these citizens appeal. We could 
have an assembly room, a principal's office, a teachers' room and proper lavatories. 
The Local Board's recommendation and District Superintendent Nicholson's 
report elicit this reply from the General Board. The matter of replacing P. S. 115 
was considered when the last Corporate Stock estimate was being prepared, but 
on account of the limited amount allowed for new buildings, etc., the item was not 
reached. This ,. is very unsatisfactory, as it does not insure any future favorable 
action. 

Consider, please, that Canarsie pays yearly $200,000 in real estate taxes alone. 
It is quite evident that this section is considered by the City from the standpoint 
of contributing to the City's treasury without regard to an adequate return. 

This is not fair treatment to the descendants of those Civil War Veterans that 
Canarsie, on the first call for volunteers by President Lincoln, sent in numbers 
greater than its voting population at that time. This is an historical fact. Tlu-ir 



336 

sons and grandsons were at the front in the Spanish-American War and in the 
present crisis Canarsie will enlist more than its quota. 

I want to thank the Committee for its patience and also for the opportunity 
offered to the people of Canarsie to present their justifiable complaint. 

FREDERICK H. CAMPBELL, Member of Local School Board, District 39, 
assigned to P. S. 115. 

Report of Mrs. Bonn-, 1th District. 
Against the Gary — 

Results — If the present results in essentials (reading, writing, arithmetic) are 
unsatisfactory, what will lie the result when less time is devoted to them? 

Social Conditions — Takes women into trades hitherto monopolized by men — helps 
to disorganize social conditions (printing). 

Injustice — Morally wrong to force a child to study some form of industrial 
training when it has a mental equipment suitable for some higher position in life — 
business, finance, professions. 

Tests — Before general adoption of this system the Board of Education should 
wait at least three years for proof of its efficiency. Prevent its adoption by other 
schools until the results have been tested. These results should be tested by dis- 
interested people appointed by the Board of Education and Parents' Committee and 
not by people whose salaries have been raised by those in favor of the Gary system. 

Expense to Taxpayers — Too much money to spend when its success in Xew 
York City is only as yet indefinite (the whole school population of Gary is only 3,000). 

Clothing — Must be carried from one room to another for 8 or 9 periods — a very 
bad feature on wet days. Facilities provided not adequate. 

Time — After three, child should play in open air and run errands to help 
parents. This helps to give them enough exercise. 

Unhygienic — Too long in close air of class rooms; eye strain results from arti- 
ficial light necessary in rooms during late afternoons. 

/ ruancy — An invitation to truancy to boys at each change of period. Needs 
strong disciplinarians. 

Repair Expense — Child does not develop aresponsibility for the condition of its 
desks, etc. Constantly changing rooms. 

Patents — Proper attention should be given to the opinions of the parents who 
present arguments for land against the system. 

Suggestions for Mrs. Bowe. 

1. Have people really see the schools of the city and what they are doing. 

2. Mrs. Ford's recommendations should not be accepted. Consolidation making 
big schools under one principal. Reduction in clerical assistants (68-75). Reduction 
in assistants to principals. 

Duplicate schools not good because: 

(a) The "X" school or "Y" school cannot be accommodated in libraries, play- 
grounds, etc., and so the children roam the streets. 

(b) Need more teachers. 

(c) Personal touch is lost. 

3. Special teachers should be re-appointed. Removal of these has destroyed the 
successful leaching of subjects which have an important educative value, as music, 
household economy, cooking, physical training, etc. 

4. Old buildings, or already in existence. These should not be neglected while 
awaiting new buildings or adapting of some for duplicate school plans. The repairs 
and necessary painting should be carried on each year. 

See P. S. 15. Roof of 188 made into good gymnasium or playground by being 
covered. Better care taken of school property by recreation centres, etc. 



337 

5. Janitors. Hiring of help, good wages so as to get efficient help. Recommend 
that they wear uniform. Better supervision of their work. Dustless sweeping and 
cleaning if possible, using vacuum cleaning. 

6. Attendance of children in school nearest residence. This should not be 
required except as children are admitted. Graduates, etc., for sentimental reasons as 
well as for good of children, prefer to remain. Families should as far as possible 
attend same school. To carry this out during a term, because of the fluctuating 
population, would create havoc in the schools. 

7. Smaller classes. All classes should be smaller — 40 children. Kindergartens 
not more than 40. 

8. High Spots. Physical training throughout district. After school clubs, 
Athletic, Boys and Girls, Glee, Orchestra, Little Mothers' League, City History, etc. 

Present System — 

Needs flexible course of study to enable the principals to suit the needs of 
children in different localities of the City. Favors academic eduction — should be 
retained in lower grades. 

1. Moral effect — One teacher understands children and helps moral tone in every 
lesson whenever weakness is noted. 

2. Physical effect — Constant changing of teachers and rooms has nervous effect 
on children. Lower grade children need quiet, orderly organization. 

3. Mental effect — Lack concentration in development of attention. Teacher has 
to supervise too many children to effectually study and understand each child. This 
opportunity is given under the present system. 

The Value of Kindergarten Training. 

Address read before the Aldermanic Board, April 16, 1917. 

"It's only play." How many times have I been given that reply to the question, 
"Why don't you send your little one to a Kindergarten?" 

Only play, and yet of what significance, and how little understoid is the value of 
play by the average parent, nay even by the so-called educator. And yet this play 
movement was one of the best movements in American education, for it substituted 
activity for repression, and insisted upon the child's right to himself and to happiness 
during the educational process. The building up of the American school system has ' 
been a slow process — "it began not at the bottom, with the youngest children, but 
at the top." The work of the youngest children was the last to be provided for. 

The Kindergarten directs the child's activity into educational channels — play 
becomes education. The dignity of labor is emphasized, the child is socialized, that is 
one of its chief factors. Unselfishness and helpfulness are emphasized, habits of 
cleanliness are taught, the family life is brought out, the child learns to respect 
things. It is a constant give and take. The kindergarten becomes its key to the 
outside world. The child learns that he is a part of the whole. The kindergarten 
has for its aim the elevation of the home, it keeps the children of the slums off the 
streets, and they are made clean and happy by kind and motherly young women ; 
that the child thus cared for enables the mother to go about her work in or outside 
of the home — all this should appeal to the heart of America. 

But the Kindergarten should not concern itself with the children of the poor 
alone. The children of the rich need it almost as much as those of the poor. The 
typical American family consists of one child, whereas the children of the poor 
have companions and playmates in their other brothers and sisters, who are in 
most cases removed from them in but few years. Again, the congested life of the 
poor sends the children into the streets whereas our parents or our parents parents 
have been brought up in the country with a small patch of ground surrounding 
the house. Today it is the apartment house. 



338 

The child of the wealthy mother is left in the. care of an untrained person 
usually a nurse, for, just as the mother of the poor family is too occupied in her 
home or with work outside of it, so the rich mother is occupied socially, and in 
most cases both these mothers do not know how to direct the activity of the child 
even though she had the time. 

In the kindergarten games we see the true beginning for the child's physical 
development, in its gifts and occupations exercises the foundation for art and 
manual training work, and in its garden work and nature excursions the foundation 
of a true knowledge of nature. 

Churches have established kindergartens, individuals have endowed kinder- 
gartens, and associations have been organized for the spread and support of kinder- 
ns; in nearly every large city, and the fact that kindergartens, could be carried 
on successfully under public school conditions been demonstrated. So the kinder- 
gartens, become an agency and applied in the Sunday School. 

The kindergarten has been recognized as a child saving agency. So let us have 
kindergartens, more kindergartens, compulsory kindergarten training for children, 
if possible. 

Department of Education, City of New York, Manhattan, Feb. 3rd, 1915. 
of Education, 500 Park Ave., City: 

Gentlemen — The Local School Board of District No. 10, beg this opportunity to 
renew the recommendation made in former annual reports, that steps be taken by 
your honorable board to have erected a school building on the site located on 20th 
Street, west of 8th Ave., acquired for school purposes in 1907. 

This site was purchased after a thorough investigation as to its necessity had 
been made by the Local School Board, the Board of Superintendents, the Board of 
Education, and the Board of Estimate and Apportionment. It was originally acquired 
for the purpose of erecting a building to replace old No. 55, located on 20th Street, 
cast of 7th Ave. Although No. 55 has been abandoned and its pupils placed in 

by schools, the necessity for a new building nevertheless exits. 

The site is located in the heart of the populous section of the district, and is 
within seven blocks of the homes of the great mass of the children now attending 
" Nos. 11, 48 and 25. 

A new building would afford more adequate facilities for manual training than 
exist at present. It would bring to the children of this section the advantages of a 
gymnasium, open air playroom and baths. It would provide an auditorium which 
could be used for lectures, concerts and other purposes calculated to improve the 
intellectual, moral, and social status of those living in the neighborhood; it would 
also provide a roof which could be used by mothers and babies during the warm 
days of summer, by young men and women for recreation purposes in the evenings, 
and also by school children during and after school hours at all times of the year. 
Besides, a new building would be fireproof, whereas the present school buildings in 
the district are not. 

Looking at the matter from the viewpoint of economy, we respectfully ask 
your attention to the fact that since 1907 when the property was purchased, more 
than $90,000 has been lost to the city by retaining said property in its present unim- 
proved condition. 

The value of the site mentioned appears on the books of the Board of Taxes 
and Assessments as being worth $178,000. By holding it in its present condition, 
iln city loses annually in taxes a sum approximating $3,000. Again, an award of 
$317,500 was made to the owners on the condemned property. This amount is drawing 
interest at the rate of 4 per cent. In other words, $12,700 is paid annually in interest 
on award made. 



339 ■ 

This interest added to the $3,000 loss in taxes makes approximately a gross 
annual loss of $15,700, from which, if there be deducted the amount $3,000 (ap- 
proximate), received in rentals, there Still remains a net annual loss to the city of 
$12,700. 

The erection of a new building would largely eliminate these losses, and could, at 
the same time, enable the city, through the Board of Education, to economize in sev- 
eral directions — for instance, in the salaries of principals and janitors and in other 
administrative ways that will appeal to your honorable board just as readily as 
they do to us. 

Apart from this, the erection of the proposed building would enable your board 
to dispense with P. S. 11, P. S. 26 and P. S. 48. The values of the sites on which 
these structures stand have been appraised as follows : 

P. S. 11 $150,000 00 

P. S. 26 250,000 00 

P. S. 48 200,000 00 

If these buildings be surrendered to the city and then sold at the figures quoted 
above, the city would receive in taxes from the sites in their unimproved condition 
at least $10,000 a year. If buildings similar to those in the neighborhood of the 
above-mentioned schools be erected on the site of said schools, the income to the city 
in taxes from this source would be at least $20,000. 

We respectfully urge you, therefore, to take such steps as you deem advisable 
towards an early erection of a school building on the site mentioned herein. 

We also respectfully urge your honorable board to acquire the premises No. 347 
West 18th Street, on the east side of P. S. 56, for the following reasons : 

1st — To provide additional means of exit in case of fire. This school building 
is an old one and the only means of escape in an emergency is that furnished by the 
doors in the front of the building. We believe that the present number of exits 
is entirely inadequate. If the premises No. 347 be acquired they can be remodeled at 
a small expense so as to furnish a playroom on the ground floor and also additional 
means of exit from the school building. 

2nd — At present there are toilets in the easterly yard which are of the old type 
and constantly out of order. Their presence, is, we believe, a menace, on account 
of their close proximity to the classrooms. If the additional plot is acquired, they 
can be removed some distance from the school building. 

3rd — The proposed acquisition would furnish at small expense three or four class- 
rooms which could be used for the accommodation of classes now occupying the 
assembly rooms. 

4th — If said premises are purchased by outside parties and a large flat or apart- 
ment building be erected on its site at least nine classrooms of the school building 
will be .rendered useless for school purposes. Yours very truly, 

REV. HENRY MOTTET, Secretary, pro tern. 

Department of Education, Local School Board. 
(Copy.) 
Office of the Principal of Public School No. 93, Borough of Manhattan, April 
11. 1917. 

Report on Possible Activities. 
Rooms needed — Ten extra rooms : 2 rooms for domestic science, 1 room for 
needed kitchen, 1 room for model flat, 2 rooms for business course, filing, bookkeeping 
(great demand for this course), stenography, typewriting, office practice, study of 
business maps, etc. ; 1 room for sewing and milinery. 

This would afford opportunity to introduce millinery, and to further the develop- 
ment of making garments. 



• 340 

One room -for lunch room and Teachers' library, a room where. books of reference 
may be used by Teachers. 

One room for nature study equipped with standing boxes of soil in which plants, 
including vegetables, may be grown. In this room both animal and plant growth 
may be studied. (Superintendent Straubenmuller is interested in this.) 

One room for historical museum for a collection of objects, pictures, magazine 
articles and documents relating to the history of City of New York. (Available and 
interesting for the entire district.) 

One room for exhibition of school work and activities: Model drawings, com- 
positions, chart work in arithmetic, spelling, penmanship and othei subjects. 

One room for making of novelties. Decorative boxes, raffia work (begun in 
third grade of school), baskets, lamp shades and articles made of silk, cotton, vel- 
vet, etc. 

Children who have ability along any of these lines could, with this training, more 
readilj obtain employment. At present girls who are not able to go to high school 
have to pay for courses in business school or take such "jobs" as wrapping parcels. 

(Signed) LAURA CHARLTON, Principal. 

Canarsie Board of Trade, Canarsie, Brooklyn, N. Y., April 24, 1917. 
The General Welfare Committee, Board of Aldermen: 

Gentlemen — This organization desires to add its approval to any action that will 
relieve the school situation at Public School 115 in Canarsie. For years a new school 
ii.i been needed and it has always bothered us why the City had not ere this 
utilized the plot purchased many years ago for the purpose intended. 

Man\ times as I come in contact with the parents of the children attending 
Public School 115 I hear complaints of the lack of school facilities. 

There is no reason why the taxes in our section of Canarsie (where in some 
instances increases have been made within the last few years of upward of 400 
per cent i are not justified by reasonable return by the City. We are entitled to fair 
play, which we are not receiving, and I trust the outcome of the hearing conducted 
by your Committee will be beneficial to us as to others. Very truly yours, 

EDWIN L. ROWLAND, President. 

F. W. Bleckwenn & Son. Real Estate and Insurance, Citv of New York, April 
12, 1917. 
Mr. Chairman and Members of the Aldermanic Investigating Committee: 

Having conducted a personal investigation in regards to the building of a new 

ol on the propertj owned For the past twelve years or more by the City of New 
York, which is bounded bj Pierce, Fourth and Fifth Avenues. First Ward, Borough 
of Queens. 1 find that within a radius of five blocks of this site there are more thar 
5(Ki children attending Public School Nos. 4, 5 and 6, which are located from 10 t- 
15 blocks from this site. 

In <>n!er for the children to reach these schools, it is necessary to cross differen; 
trollej lin.es. and also many streets where there is a continuous line of automobiles and 
Other traffic. 

On account of these conditions it is necessary in many cases for parents to accom- 
pany their children to and from school. 

Many of these children are forced to go without their noon-day meal on account 
■ if tin- distance and time consumed in travel. In stormy weather the children are 
often obliged to sit all day in wet clothing, due to distances which they have to travel 
in order to reach their respective schools. 

In conclusion, on behalf of the parents of these children I respectfully request 
your most Honorablt Committee to thoroughly investigate this matter, and by doing 



341 

so, I feel that you will find that the erection of a new school is the only possible way 
to remedy existing conditions and also relieve the congestion in the other schools. 

RUDOLPH F. BLEEKWENN. 

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Aldermanic Investigating Committee — Hav- 
ing conducted a personal investigation in regards to the building of a new school on 
the property owned for the past 12 years or more by the City of New York, which 
is bounded by Pierce, Fourth and Fifth Avenues, First Ward, Borough of Queens, I 
find that within a radius of five blocks of this site there are more than 500 children 
attending Public Sqhools Nos. 4, 5 and 6, which are located from 10 to IS blocks from 
this site. 

In order for the children to reach these schools it is necessary to cross different 
trolley lines and also many streets where there is a continuous line of automobile and 
other traffic. 

On account of these conditions it is necessary in many cases for parents to ac- 
company their children to and from school. 

Many of these children are forced to go without their noon-day meal on account 
of the distance and time consumed in travel. In stormy weather the children are 
often obliged to sit all day in wet clothing, due to distance which they have to travel 
in order to reach their respective schools. 

In conclusion, on behalf of the parents of these children I respectfully request 
your most Honorable Committee to thoroughly investigate this matter and by doing 
so I feel that you will find that the erection of a new school is the only possibly way 
to remedy existing conditions and also relieve the congestion in the other schools. 

To the Public W elf are Committee, Board of Aldermen, New York City: 

Gentlemen — The Citizens and Parents' Association of Public School No. 6, 
Queens, respectfully call your attention to the efforts of the parents to obtain better 
and sufficient school accommodations at P. S. No. 66 and after four years of 
continual agitation and demand of the Board of Education, and by recommendations 
through our representative in the Board of Education Mr. Bernard Suydam. not 
the slightest heed has been given any recommendation, protest or demand of the 
parents or their commissioner by the said Board of Education, and the result has 
been intolerable congestion at this school. 

The register of our school in the year 1912, 1,821; 1913, 1,828; 1914, 1,927; 1915, 
1,967; 1916, 2,036. To-day the register is 2,050. 

The legal seating capacity is but 1,573, while the sittings are 1,664. The increase 
in registry from 1912 to 1916 has been 420 pupils, or the equivalent of ten classes. 
There are 18 classes on double session, and two classes on part time. Little or 
no play ground space has been another serious handicap. 

We contend, therefore, that with the present attendance at this school, and the 
prospect of a largely increased population in the near future, due to the opening of 
the new rapid transit lines that a new school is the only proper relief for the 
present congestion. 

We have been offered relief by the Board of Education by their promise to 
install the Work-Study Plan. Leaving aside entirely the question of the merits of 
the plan, we' contend that beyond any doubt, it is absolutely impracticable to make 
such alterations and changes as are proposed for the installation of this plan in 
our particular school, No. 6, Queens. 

From a sanitary viewpoint, the basement, which will house from 300 to 400 
children at all hours of the day under this plan is absolutely unfit for such 
purpose. Four of the present class rooms now being used under pressure lor 
space are totally unfit for class room work. The vision of the children is seriously 
impaired by poor light. Under the Duplicate Plan it is proposed to continue these 



342 

four unit class rooms for regular work, and twelve of the finest and best rooms in the 
new portion of our building are to be taken for shops, kitchens and special activities. 

Economically it is worse than a failure. It constitutes gross misappropriation, 
and wilful waste of public funds, as the remodelled school will at best accommodate 
only about 150 pupils more than the present register, and for this it is proposed 
to expend the greater part of $99,000. The balance of this money is for the acquisi- 
tion of six lots for so-called organized play under the duplicate school plan, and 
these lots are across the streets and away from the general supervision of the school. 
Further, this additional land for playground was to be entirely contingent upon the 
introduction of the Gary Plan. 

The Board of Education has given us the alternative of accepting this relief or 
nothing. The parents have unquestionably and unanimously at two separate mass 
meetings held for this purpose, decide not to accept this conditional offer of relief, 
for the one good reason that the proper relief cannot possibly be obtained in this 
manner. 

The parents therefore recommend, suggest and pray that the erection of an 
entirely new school building be commenced on the site already owned by the City, 
at Pierce and Fourth avenues, and that the $99,000 appropriated for altertaions at 
No. 6 be put to a more practical use in erecting so much of a new school building 
as the $99,000 will permit as a start. The parents are perfectly willing to sacrifice 
this better termed misappropriation for the alteration of P. S. No. 6 for a real appro- 
priation towards erecting a new school. 

We contend that in this manner both the City and the school patrons will get 
times the value of this money. First, a ten-lot school site which has been 
lying dormant for 15 years or more is immediately available without the expendi- 
ture of a dollar for land. Secondly, full value in new and additional construction 
for the $99,000, and thirdly, because it affords the only sane and proper solution of 
present and future relief. 

In conclusion, we ask particularly, and emphatically, that the Board of Education 
>< enjoined from making any alterations or further plans for the remodeling of 
P. S. No. 6 while Ibis investigation by j-our honorable committee is being conducted, 
and its findings made conclusive. Respectfully submitted, by 

CITIZENS' AND PARENTS' ASSOCIATION OF P. S. No. 6. Georce Seidel 
President. 
To tk< V Aldermanic Welfare Investigating Committee, City of New York: 

Gentlemen — As the President of the Retail Merchants' Association, of Long 

Island City, and in behalf of its members that have children attending Publio School 

No. 6, 1 appear before your honorable committee to voice their sentiment, calling 

attention to the unusual overcrowded condition that now exists in Public 

School No. 6, also in my own behalf. 

1 am a resident of this section for the past seven years; I had an occasion to 
watch the growth of this school from half classes, until to-day overcrowded beyond 
its capacity; from the legal seating capacity of 1,500 to the .present register of 2,050 
pupils. 

Particularly during the past two years, conditions were getting worse daily, until 
in my estimation, have reached the danger point from a hygienic and safety point 
of view, and also from an educational standpoint, as it is next to impossible to 
teach children properly in an overcrowded class room, and on a part time system. 

In the past. I have had four children in this school, and to-day, two (of my 
boys are attending this school. The younger one, about nine years of age, is in 
3B class. He had his school hours changed repeatedly from early morning session 
at 8.15 to the present time, at 12 noon, and from observation, I am convinced that 
a child's faculties are by far at its best during forenoon after a good night's rest. 



343 

and he is compelled to waste these valuable three hours in playing in or out of 
doors, and naturally his mind is on playthings and not very receptive to study. 

I have tried, with the aid of other parents and with the aid of the Mdthers' 
Club, to have this evil remedied, having been, in connection with others, on a few 
occasions, before the Board of Estimate and Apportionment ; but all they would 
tell us was that a sum has been set aside, approximately $100,000 for the installation 
of a duplicate school system. 

Now, from my personal investigation, I find that with the installation of this 
so-called duplicate system, all we can possibly expect to gain is the accommodation 
of about ISO additional children, and for that increase the City is willing to spend 
$100,000, and compel our children to take up part of their time with other activities, 
which, in the opinion of all the parents, and also of any unbiased person, is of little 
or no value to our children. 

Granting, for sake of argument, that the duplicate system would remedy condi- 
tions temporarily, and it is an ideal system, why, then, have none of the Board of 
Education, Board of Superintendents, or the Board of Principals ever advocated it. 

The special activities outlined in the duplicate school system would not give 
us the measure of relief we are seeking in Public School No. 6, with the constant 
increase of population in this section. The only solution in relieving the over- 
crowded conditions of this school so as to enable our children to enjoy a regular 
and full time school session is the erection of a new school building owned by the 
City, and which is lying dormant for the past fifteen years. 

I therefore hope and pray that your Honorable Committee will give this your fair 
and unbiased consideration, and that you may recommend that we get the necessary 
relief that we are seeking in the past two years, by the erection of a new school 
building which will accommodate all children which by right and reason ought not to 
attend Public School No. 6. 

I. J. MOSS, President of the Retail Merchants' Association of L. I. City. 

In the Matter of the Investigation by the Board of Aldermen of Conditions in the 
Public Schools of the City of New York. 

The over-crowded condition of Bryant High School has long been the cause of 
complaint by scholars, parents and civic associations. Persistent agitation extending 
over a long period of time has finally resulted in an appropriation by the Board of 
Estimate and Apportionment of the sum of about five hundred thousand dollars for 
a new addition to the present building. This new addition when complete will un- 
doubtedly remedy many of the serious conditions now existing, but some of them 
undoubtedly call for immediate consideration and correction. 

Sanitary conditions are very bad. As cloak rooms closets standing in the halls 
along the walls are used. The few hooks they contain are wholly insufficient for 
properly hanging up the garments. In fact, so small and inadequate are the accom- 
modations for clothing that much of it protrudes out of the closets upon the 
floor, making it impossible to close the doors. 

Some times a class of about one hundred girls have to change from school 
costume to gymnasium dress in a store room occupied by lumber and cast-off furni- 
ture. There are no shower baths for the use of the boys and their friends or visiting 
teams after vtolent exercise. They have to crowd into a room used as a plumbing and 
shop room to resume their street clothing, and except for the running water offered 
by the sink faucets, they must dress and go out into the street in their sweat and 
dust without the sanitary protection of a shower bath and rub-down. The absence 
of gymnasium lockers results in confusion, invonvenience and loss of suits and slip- 
pers belonging to the Athletic Association lent to members of the team. In fact it 
is no uncommon thing to see students, both young men and women, carrying their 
gymnasium slippers along with their books to school each day. 



344 

At Bryant High School there are being held both day and night sessions. Classes 
for both men and women day and night. The rules of the Board of Education re- 
quire that a woman be present at all times as matron in all classes attended by girls. 
There were two such women at one time. At present there is but one. The other 
has been sick and away for the past month and no assignment has been made in 
her place. 

There were at one time three men to take care of the building, outside of the 
firemen. One of these men has been taken away and there are at present two men 
and a woman to clean the entire building. One of these men is partly physically 
incapitated and walks with a cane, and because of the lack of help nine rooms re- 
mained last week uncleaned. Despite the shortage of help at Bryant High School 
the janitor was asked last Wednesday morning to send some one to School No. 83 
in Ravenswood. 

We sincerely ask that immediate attention be given to the sanitary conditions at 
this school, and that the method of employment and assignment of help for the care 
of the school be investigated. Respectfully submitted, 
ASTORIA HEIGHTS AND STEINWAY TAXPAYERS' AND BUSINESSMEN'S 

ASSOCIATION. 

Gentlemen of the Board of Aldermen — In the name of the Parents' Association 
of this School No. 29, I want to bid you welcome and to thank you for giving the 
Rockaways this chance to be heard. 

The association of which I have the honor to be president is of such recent birth 
that it has hardly advanced beyond the toddling stage, and while our footsteps are so 
uncertain, we feel that we are not mature enough yet to make official investigations. 
It is, therefore, as the result of common knowledge and not as the outcome of any 
activity of our association that we are able to make the following statement: 

We are very proud of our school, and with reason. In point of scholarship and 
power for good in the community it has reached a point which can hardly be ex- 
celled. Every year, in competitive examination with pupils of other schools, some 
member or members of our graduating class are awarded scholarships, and this year 
one member of the class has received the highest average mark ever given by the 
Board of Regents. 

\\ Mil such a record we feel all the more keenly that our pupils and teachers should 
not be hampered and handicapped in their efforts by the physical limitations of the 
school buildings. 

Far Rockaway is a popular and populous summer resort. During May, June and 
September, almost half the school term, countless numbers of children are trans- 
ferred from city schools to our school and the seating capacity of our classrooms 
is taxed beyond the legal limit, adding to conditions which are already bad enough. 
We are glad that we are a growing community; in growth there is evidence of vitality, 
but \vc should like to receive the nourishment which will keep that vitality intact. 
During this school year six or possibly more classes have had to be on "part time" ; 
this not only deprives those classes of on hour's schooling to which they are legally 
entitled, but works to their physical disadvantage. These classes of children between 
the ages of seven and eleven have to empty out their desks daily to make room for 
the succeeding class, and have to carry all their books to and from school, as there 
is no room for them in the school. Many of the children live as much as a mile 
away from the school; do you think it is good for young children to walk such dis- 
tances twice daily carrying several pounds of books? 

Other individuals and associations have been making investigations during the past 
years, and will be better able than we to tell you the result of their findings. We 
have reason to believe that our ills are being looked after and that owing to unre- 
mitting efforts on the part of our Progress Society and the more recept activities of 



345 

our School Commissioner, Mr. Halpin, an appropriation of $55,000 has been approved 
by the Board of Education. We understand that this appropriation will be utilized 
for the erection of an additional story on the main building, so that if the appropria- 
tion is ratified by the Board of Estimate and Apportionment it will remedy the ills 
to which I have referred, and make our school equal, from a physical standpoint, to 
what it has already attained from the scholastic standpoint. Cherishing this hope 
the whole of Far Rockaway is now, as it were, "holding its thumbs." 

Queens, March 1, 1917. 
Mrs. John Bailey, 229 Webster Ave., Long Island City: 

My Dear Mrs. Bailey — Following you will please find a statement relative to the 
necessity for more playground in this vicinity. Also some other needs of this locality. 

1. An insufficient amount of money is appropriated for repairs to school build- 
ings. No money for redecoration of classrooms, cleaning of seats, etc. 

2. While this building has a legal seating capacity of nineteen hundred eight 
(1908) pupils our only assembly room consists of four classrooms, with a seating 
capacity of less than two hundred (200). 

This building has a legal seating capacity of nineteen hundred eight (1,908) 
pupils. It extends from Crescent to Prospect St. and the playgrounds on the Pros- 
pect St. side are a story higher than those on Crescent St. The part of the build- 
ing fronting on Crescent St. has a legal seating capacity of one thousand ninety-four 
(1,094). The play yards on the same side contain four thousand seven- hundred 
eighty (4.780) square feet of space. This, as you will see, provides a little over 
four square feet of space for each pupil. 

On the Prospect Street side of the building there are eight hundred fourteen 
(814) pupils. The yards on that side contain eight thousand one hundred eighty-four 
(8,1S4) square feet of space, or a little over ten (10) square feet for each pupil. 
While this amount of space per pupil is more than twice the amount provided by the 
Crescent Street yards, it is less than the amount of floor space required to properly 
seat pupils in classrooms. 

In addition to the inadequacy of the space on the Crescent Street side of the build- 
ing, those yards are shut in by a stone wall on two sides that prevents them from 
receiving a proper amount of light and sunshine. 

Unsatisfactory as these conditions are at the present time they will be still more 
so when this locality is more thickly settled and it' becomes necessary to establish 
recreation centers in this school. 

The land that would be needed to enlarge these yards could be bought at the 
present time at a comparatively reasonable price. Part of it is occupied by small 
buildings and part of it is vacant. Sincerely, R. L. CONANT. 

The High School Committee of One Hundred, Brooklyn, N. Y., April 26, 1917. 
Alderman Harry Robitzek: 

My dear Alderman — I will probably be a little late and would suggest to you 
that you call upon Judge Richards first. He is the President of this Committee and 
has prepared a brief. 

You may call upon me next and then, if you will, call upon Mr. Campbell from 
Canarsie. 

As to the rest of the program you may suit yourself. Yours truly, 

B. MILLER. 

I wish to enter a plea for teachers of Speech Improvement in the Borough of 
Queens. In our borough we have hundreds of cases of stammering, lisping and stut- 
tering which are allowed to go uncorrected because the Board of Education does not 
appoint teachers of Speech Improvement to the schools of this borough. Last Sep- 
tember (1916) there were sixty teachers who were qualified to take up this work in 



346 

the schools and I understand that at present about 100 additional teachers' names are 
being added to this list. 

Manhattan has its teachers of this subject and the effective work which they are 
doing leads us to demand that teachers of Speech Improvement be appointed to the 
schools of this borough. The three mill tax for educational purposes is levied on 
"Every dollar of assessed valuation of the real and personal estate" in the Borough 
of Queens just as in the Borough of Manhattan. Why then should our children 
be deprived of the educational advantages which are granted to the children of 
Manhattan? 

Each Speech Improvement teacher in Manhattan has charge of the Speech Im- 
provement Department of three schools. We have in Queens only 97 schools (about). 
I would respectfully suggest that the Board of Education assign 32 teachers of Speech 
Improvement to the schools of Queens and further that the Board of Education 
appoint 32 teachers from the eligible list (License No. 1) to fill the vacancies created 
by these assignments. The annual salary of the newly appointed License No. 1 teacher 
is $720, making a total annual cost of $23,040 for the 32 teachers. 

Surely a city whose regard and love for its children prompts it to name an Educa- 
tional Budget of $42,612,439.92 and a Board of Child Welfare Budget to the amount 
of ^1.286.800 should be glad to add $23,040 to its annual Educational Budget for the 
purpose of correcting the speech defects of the children of this borough. 

In closing, permit me to thank you, gentlemen, for coming to us to hear of our 
needs. We would thank you also for the effort we are confident you will put 
forth to assist us in obtaining the appointment of Speech Improvement teachers in 
this borough. 



M. B. Brown Printing & Binding Co., 
New York. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS/ 



022 118 134 7 



